Opol, Misamis Oriental Focus Group Discussio on Gender Based Violence Referral Mechanism October 28, 2020 The City Agriculture office said that they have a data base of duly registered fisherfolks (which includes fish vendors, shell gatherers etc.) as mandated by the Bureau of Fisheries, but just can’t determine how many are men and women at the time of the FGD. Women fisherfolks, identified by the the City LGU as mostly “wives of the fishermen”, on the other hand, are facing challenges on how to have sufficient capital for livelihood as most of them are in charge of the buying and selling of fish. The City Social Welfare and Development Officer. Ms. Kristine C. Firmalino also presented the programs of their office that are implemented to directly benefit women, including those who are considered as fisherfolks. Ms. Firmalino mentioned the 4Ps data base is one of the best way to identify the number of women fisherfolk in the city as these are more detailed. The CSWDO have accorded livelihood assistance for women’s organizations in the coastal barangays in El Salvador (Brgys. Molugan, Sinaloc, Pedro Sa Baculio, Amoros, Taytay and Poblacion) such as the fish products processing in Brgy. Molugan and Sinaloc. Livelihood Assistance can reach up to P300,000.00 per organization and this excludes some individual assistance that was also distributed. 5% of the total annual budget of the City are allocated for Gender and Development funds (GAD budget) and are primarily used for livelihood projects for women in the villages but no data is available on how much goes to the women fisherfolks. The representative from the City Health Office, also shared the perspective of the health sector. They have seen a trend of Violence Against Women in fishing communities in the city based on their data of VAW related medical assistance that they have conducted but she said that a thorough survey should still be conducted in this sector. She also said that there are other issues that still need to be addressed in the fishing villages in the city such as health and sanitation and waste management. Family planning is also one area that needs to be look into because of this notion in the fishing communities that women should give in to the sexual requests of their husbands specially when they just came back from being out in the ocean for several days. Gender Based Violence and Violence Against Women and Children Response Mechanism in El Salvador Page 8 of 13