instance indigenous women pose the challenge of securing and providing valid IDs which are required during registration, some women with disabilities highlighted the need to ensure accessibility of registration and election sites, while some rural and urban poor women raised concerns regarding the practice they have seen in their communities - of mass registration facilitated by politicians with the implication that this would influence how the registrants will vote in 2022. Queries asked during the webinars also highlighted the need to ensure that the most marginalized are able to register and vote in 2022, this means addressing queries regarding needed documentation and alternatives in cases there are no documents available, and also of the need to further strengthen COMELEC’s information campaign targeting marginalized groups. It also flags the importance of adopting early on an online reporting portal for campaigns and election related violations. The sectoral agenda identified by women from different sectors overwhelmingly identify the need for leaders who respect human rights, who recognizes, carries, and responds to the issues and priorities of the sector. Common agenda is also the need to address corruption and impunity, pushing for accountability and integrity. Another issue pertaining to women’s equal protection before the law is the attempt to disqualify Gabriela Partylist. The issue has been brought to the attention of the Commission, particularly invoking women’s right to participation and representation. During the Commission’s Purple Action Day Webinar last March, speakers from Gabriela including its Secretary General Joms Salvador and Gabriela representative Congresswoman Arlene Brosas detailed how the organization has been subject of different attacks. In the case Joms and other officers of Gabriela, criminal cases were filed by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). A petition for disqualification on the other hand, was filed against the partylist. For Gabriela, these are clear acts of silencing and repression. They have filed petitions for writ of amparo and habeas corpus before the Supreme Court and have questioned as well the constitutionality of the Anti-terror Law. Gabriela stresses that all these actions, like the Antiterror law are meant to silence dissent, they are an affront not only to Gabriela as an organization that has advance women’s human rights for 36 years, but also to all women and women human rights defenders. For the Commission, as an advocate of women’s human rights and a monitor of the Magna Carta of women, we have consistently spoken against red tagging. Last women’s month, through focal commissioner Karen Gomez Dumpit, the Commission emphasized the crucial role of women human rights defenders in calling for accountability, resisting impunity and misogyny,and in continuing the fight against systemic barriers to gender equality. The Commission then called out all forms of red tagging, the silencing of women’s organizations and women leaders, and other acts that limit women’s political participation.53 The Commission also commended the courage of WHRDs and the courage of women leaders like VP Leni, Senator Risa Hontiveros, and Senator Leila de Lima. The latter, having been deprived of her right to fully participate in senate proceedings as an elected official of the country. 53 Gomez-Dumpit, CHR Recognizes role of women in addressing the pandemic, in defending human rights.3 March 2021. https://chr.gov.ph/chr-recognises-role-of-women-in-addressing-the-pandemic-in-defending-human-rights/ 14