CEDAW/C/PHI/Q/6/Add.1 The Inter-Agency Council on Violence Against Women and Their Children (IACVAWC) led in the public information campaign to disseminate RA 9262 to government agencies, service providers, law enforcement officers, survivors and the general public. Orientation seminars and training on the law were given to police officers, barangay or village officials, health workers and social workers. A nationwide training of prosecutors on the gender-sensitive handling of cases of RA 9262 and RA 9208 were also conducted. The Civil Service Commission conducted fora on the law for different government employees. The Commission on Human Rights conducted 14 seminars, 8 lectures and 32 inter-agency symposia and dialogues on various human rights topics where a discussion of RA 9262 has been integrated. The Department of Health conducted orientation sessions for their clients in their Women and Children Protection Units to inform them of their rights and the government services that they can avail of. For their part, the Department of Interior and Local government conducted various orientation seminars to various barangays (villages). The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women together with the Department of Justice, conducted a national training of prosecutors to familiarize them with RA 9262 and make them gender sensitive in the handling of VAWC cases. NGOs and local government units have initiated orientations in their respective localities among women’s groups and barangay (village) officials, including orientation on issuing barangay protection orders. Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution 8. The Report notes that the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 sets penalties for various types of offences related to trafficking (para. 188 (c)). Please provide information on the rate of arrests and convictions under the Act. Since the Law was passed in 2003, the Philippine National Police conducted 25 rescue operations, rescued 137 persons, and arrested 57 persons for violation of RA 9208. The National Bureau of Investigation received and investigated 22 cases for violation of the Anti-Trafficking of Persons Law. In terms of prosecution of cases, the Department of Justice (DOJ) received 12 cases in 2003, three (3) of which were dismissed. In 2004, 60 cases were filed, 13 of which are pending investigation, 27 are pending trial, 4 cases were dropped, and 2 were dismissed. There were 4 cases that were later convicted. In 2005, 114 cases reached the DOJ, 67 of which are pending investigation, 29 are pending trial, 14 cases have been dismissed, and 2 cases were dropped. There were 3 cases that reached conviction, bringing the total convictions to seven (7) as of March 2006. Based on RA 9262, barangays and courts are supposed to issue Barangay Protection Orders and temporary/ permanent protection orders to victims of VAW. There is a DILG memo for barangays to this effect. However, compliance to the memo cannot be ascertained as of this date, as there is no systematic monitoring system in place yet. The IACVAWC Subcommittee on Monitoring is still in the process of developing a monitoring system to systematically collect data on VAWC. 8