CEDAW/C/SR.1406 26. Mr. Larga (Philippines) said that two agencies were responsible for registering the employment of domestic workers at home and abroad: the Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns and the Philippines Overseas Employment Administration. The Administration ensured that all overseas employment contracts for domestic labour provided for payment of the monthly minimum wage, which was US$ 400, and other standard labour provisions. Before leaving the country for work abroad, domestic workers were required to complete a comprehensive pre-departure orientation programme. Domestic workers recruited by a private employment agency were covered by a mandatory insurance plan, and the Administration required employers to set up an escrow account for the payment of any claims arising out of breaches of contract, including abuse and exploitation of the worker. Private agencies were required to monitor the working conditions of workers employed abroad, to report irregularities and to designate a focal point for workers’ welfare concerns. 27. Mr. Bayugo (Philippines) said that the budget of the Department of Health had totalled 2.5 billion Philippine pesos in 2015 and had been increased to 2.8 billion pesos in 2016. A budget of 4.2 billion pesos had been requested for 2017. An attempt to amend the criminal law in order to provide for certain grounds on which abortion was permitted had failed, and a recommendation had been made to submit a separate bill on the matter to Congress. To date, no bill on legalizing abortion on such grounds had been formulated. 28. Some 33,400 cases of HIV/AIDS had been reported for the period between January 1984 and April 2016; of those, 2,420 were women. In 2015, a total of 324 million pesos of the Department of Health budget had been set aside for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, including anti-retroviral treatment for 13,900 HIV-positive people, 556 of whom were women. Various aspects of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law addressed the concerns of LGBT persons, such as the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and included measures to eliminate sexual and gender-based violence. A specific section of the Law provided for the establishment of sexual and reproductive health programmes for persons with disabilities and required cities and municipalities to eliminate barriers to reproductive health services for such persons. 29. Ms. Ang (Philippines) said that Executive Orders No. 003 and No. 030 by the City of Manila had been revoked automatically through the enactment of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law, which superseded any law that was contrary to or inconsistent with its provisions, except the law on abortion. All reproductive health services provided for under the Law were currently available in health centres in Manila. Despite the ban imposed by the mayor of Sorsogon on the provision of any form of artificial contraception, State health workers had not stopped procuring and distributing modern methods of contraception in that city. 30. Ms. Rebong (Philippines) said that the Government would submit written replies to any questions that it had not yet answered. She wished to clarify that, even though abortion was not yet available, post-abortion health services were provided to women who needed them. 31. Ms. Jahan asked what specific policy measures and programmes had been established to ensure that older women, women heads of household and chronically ill women enjoyed the right to food, which was provided for explicitly under the Magna Carta of Women. What mechanism had been devised to safeguard the socioeconomic rights of women who were evicted from their land and deprived of their livelihoods as a result of beautification or development projects in urban slum areas? The delegation should comment on reports that social protection services provided to rural women by companies under the guise of corporate social responsibility were often, in fact, incentives to convince them to leave their ancestral lands. 6 GE.16-11725