CEDAW/C/PHL/7-8
titling of land, issuance of stewardship contracts, emancipation patents, and
certificates of land ownership.
151. The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act or IPRA Law of 1997 (RA 8371) provides
that “women shall enjoy equal rights and opportunities with men, as regards the
social, economic, political and cultural spheres of life. The participation of
indigenous women in the decision-making process in all levels, as well as in the
development of society, shall be given due respect and recognition. The State shall
provide full access to education, maternal and child care, health and nutrition, and
housing services to indigenous women. Vocational, technical, professional and other
forms of training shall be provided to enable these women to fully participate in all
aspects of social life. As far as possible, the State shall ensure that indigenous
women have access to all services in their own languages. ”
152. The State Party has been focusing recently on the ARMM, home to
predominantly Muslim communities and many indigenous groups. Among all the
regions in the Philippines, ARMM has been registering the lowest ratings in the
socioeconomic indicators. With the Comprehensive Agreement o n the Bangsamoro
in place, the State Party looks forward end the armed conflict and to bringing more
development interventions to enable the region to catch up with the rest of the
country. A flagship program along this line is the PAMANA ( Payapa at
Masaganang Pamayanan or Peaceful and Resilient Communities) program, which
is the national government’s peace and development framework for empowering
conflict-affected areas in the country. Outside of ARMM, the program is
implemented in 6 other areas in the Philippines. Its main objectives are to increase
livelihood and job opportunities, strengthen capacities of LGUs to pursue local
peace and development programs, ensure transparency and accountability and
enable greater community participation in the pursuit o f peace and development. In
2013, DOH-ARMM reported that 45,659 women were given pre-natal visits, 36,876
post-pregnancy visits and 14,179 infants went through newborn screening.
Beneficiaries of the CCT program numbered 389,656 in ARMM.
153. The regional ARMM Government also launched its Health, Education,
Livelihood, Peace, and Governance and Synergy (HELPS) program for more
coordinated and focused and targeted interventions at the local level. With the
outpouring of support for development in ARMM and the strong drive for good
governance, the State Party is hopeful that this program will contribute to the
improvement of the socioeconomic conditions in the area. PCW has been providing
technical assistance to the Regional Commission on Bangsamoro Women (RC BW),
its counterpart machinery in ARMM, on gender mainstreaming to strengthen its
competency to perform its function of promoting and monitoring gender responsive
programming and implementation in ARMM.
154. An NGO initiative focusing on literacy problem in Muslim Mindanao is that of
the Magbassa Kita Foundation Incorporated. The Foundation started Literacy for
Peace and Development Project (LIPAD) in 2010 in response to the findings of the
Functional Literacy and Mass Media Survey conducted every five yea rs by the
National Statistics Office that showed ARMM registering the lowest literacy rates in
two consecutive survey periods – 2003 and 2008. The project aimed to graduate at
least 62,500 adult neo-literates until 2013. Also, it aimed to reinforce peace and
development efforts by incorporating peace and development themes in its
curriculum. Recently, it also integrated gender related core messages, such as those
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