DENR’s Women’s Month Celebration 2007

I. Background

The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women once again organized the nationwide celebration of Women’s Month with various activities focused on promotion of women’s issues and rights, and advocacy for the passage of policies and laws for women’s advancement. This year’s celebration revolved around the theme “CEDAW ng Bayan: Kabuhayan ng Kababaihan!”.

This year’s celebration serves as a channel for the nationwide campaign to promote women’s economic rights among policymakers, government planners, media, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders; Government commitment and actions to address concluding comments on the 5th and 6th Philippine Report on CEDAW implementation; and documentation of good practices of gender-responsive programs and services addressing women’s economic empowerment.

II.  Legal Mandate

The government instituted the women’s month celebration through Proclamation No. 224, “Declaring the First Week of March of Every Year as Women’s Week and March 8, 1988 and Every Year Thereafter as Women’s Rights and International Peace Day.” Proclamation No. 227, “Providing for the observance of the Month of March as ‘Women’s Role in History Month’ was also signed on March 17, 1988. Two years after, R.A. 6949, “An Act to Declare March Eight of Every Year as a Working Special Holiday to be Known as National Women’s Day was signed on April 10, 1990.

III. The National Women’s Day Celebration

The National Women’s Day Celebration was conducted on March 8, 2007 at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, Ninoy Aquino Stadium, Malate, Manila. Government agencies, non-government, civil society, private sector and other groups gathered in the stadium to celebrate the gains and call attention to remaining issues and challenges confronting Filipino Women. Approximately 7, 000 women and men participated in the activity. The major activities during the whole day celebration were the opening ceremony, trade and services fair, and exhibit.

The Keynote speech of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo highlighted the opening ceremony. There were also presentation of good practices on women’s empowerment and gender equality, creative presentations on CEDAW economic rights and sharing of success stories by women entrepreneurs.

To lend support to the celebration, the Department sent a delegation composed of participants from the Central Office, Bureaus, Attached Agencies, EMB 4A, 4B and NCR, MGB 4A&4B and DENR-NCR, R4A and R4B headed by Dir. Ramon Ezpeleta.

During the speech of the President, there was a misunderstanding between her and the crowd on the issue on the salary increase of P1000 and on the microfinance program. Chairperson Yao clarified that there was no salary increase yet but there was an additional monthly allowance of P1000 which was granted last year.

The incident, however, made the President become aware of the necessity to provide microfinance opportunities for government employees. With this, she told to the crowd that she would propose a raise in their salary to the Congress and work out a microfinance program for government employees so that come Women’s Day next year, many of them would be beneficiaries.

IV.  The Department’s Celebration

The Department’s month-long celebration was launched on March 5, 2007 at the DENR Main Building’s lobby. It started with a flag ceremony followed by the opening program. The welcome remarks was given by Assistant Director Neria Andin in behalf of Assistant Secretary Analiza R. Teh. Assistant Secretary Teresita M .Repizo of Administrative- Legal Services introduced and presented the Guest of Honor, Dr. Pablo S. Trillana III.

Dr. Trillana is an ADB Consultant and former DENR Undersecretary for Legal, Legislative Affairs and Attached Agencies. In his speech, he shared his experience in starting a business with minimal capital. He also pointed out that a woman really needs livelihood and capital to survive. He also pointed out that anyone could become a very good leader, all they have to do is to endure and work. He ended his speech with a metaphor.

The message of the Secretary was delivered by Assistant Secretary Michelle Angelica Go while the Closing Remarks was given by Undersecretary Teresita Samson-Castillo.

The cutting of ribbon of the 2007 GAD Exhibit and the trade fair exhibit was done by the guest of honor, Dr. Pablo Trillana III assisted by Assistant Secretaries, Teresita Repizo and Michelle Angelica Go. Some of the GAD Focal Points were also present during the ribbon cutting.

The trade fair exhibit with the theme, “CEDAW ng DENR: Likas Kayang Kabuhayan ng Kababaihan!” was participated in by different women partner entrepreneurs and enterprising groups like Women’s Council of Teresa, Rizal, Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, Galaw ng Kalikasan, etc. on environment and health-friendly sustainable livelihoods. Both the GAD and trade fair exhibits highlighted CEDAW.

Activities lined-up for the month-long celebration were also conducted such as the Inter-agency Family Feud Contest, Potting Session and Medical-initiated activities like provision of free Chest X-Ray, ECG, screening of osteoporosis, sugar & cholesterol.  The Bureaus, Attached Agencies and Regional Offices also initiated their activities in observance of Women’s Month.

Potting Session

The “Potting Session” is an act of volunteerism among GAD Focal Points of the Department to foster and promote greening likewise providing assistance to the Green Philippines Program of the Department. It was simultaneously conducted nationwide on March 16, 2007, except in Regions CAR and 11 which were done on March 14 and 19, respectively.

To make the occasion alive and more exciting, a competition among the participating offices nationwide was made. As a standard procedure, there was an orientation on proper potting soil and sowing seeds. The participants were grouped into ten (10) and were given two (2) hours, i.e. from 7:00 am to 9:00 am, to produce at least 1000 pots. The performance of each group was assessed and evaluated at the end of the activity. There were symbolic announcement and awarding of prizes to the winners.

A total of 4, 335 participants (2, 063 males and 2, 272 females) produced a total of 376, 288 pots. Region 7 produced the highest number of pots with 93,292; followed by Region 6 with 50, 862.

Of the total number of pots produced, 156 participants from DENR-Manila- Based Offices produced a total of 13, 538 pots. The winning team for the potting session in Manila was MGB-Region 4 with 8 participants, which produced 1, 760 pots.

On the average number of pots produced per participant for each office, Region 7 produced the highest with 230 per participant followed by CAR with 143.

In terms of the number of participants, the office with the highest number of participants was Region 13 (813).

At PhP1.03 unit cost per seedling for the materials and labor for potting, potbeds preparation and pot arrangements, as stipulated in DAO 2000-19, the total number of pots produced may result to a saving of P387, 576.64 from the DENR fund. Table 1 shows the number of participants and number of pots produced.

The Honorable Secretary graced the occasion in Region 3 with Assistant Secretary Leonilo Lariosa while Congressman Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora attended   the activity in Region 11 and led the awarding of prizes. 

Table 1.  No. of pots produced nationwide

Family Feud

The Inter-agency Family Feud Contest was conducted on March 20, 2007 at the DENR Operations Center. The Family Feud is a guessing game in which participants give out the answers to what 100 people said on every survey question. The participating groups consist of five (5) members. Fourteen (14) competing teams from different offices participated in the contest. These were the LMB, NAECTAF, MGB-R4, DENR-R4A, NAMRIA, Central Office, NWRB, ERDB, FMB, DENR-NCR, EMB- R4A, EMB-R4B, EMB and MGB. The winners are the group coming from the DENR-Central Office- 1st place, DENR-R4A and EMB-R4B, 2nd and 3rd place, respectively.

Medical Initiated Activities

Several medical-initiated activities were conducted through the DENR-Medical and Dental Clinic. These were dental examinations, dental filling, extractions, prophylaxis, prostodontics and gum check-up. Table 3 shows the number of dental patients. The Medical unit also provided free services on bone scanning, fasting blood sugar, ECG, X-ray, Ultrasound referrals, etc. Male and female employees of the Office of the Secretary, Bureaus and their dependents availed themselves of the free services as shown in Table 2.

Bureaus Initiated Activities

Several activities were also initiated by the different Bureaus of the Department in observance of the Women’s Month. FMB conducted Fun Day, Negosyo Forum, Meat Processing Training, Accessories Making and protection and maintenance activities at the GAD planting site and Orientation on Seedling production as potential livelihood activity in Norzagaray, Bulacan. EMB initiated the Seminar on how to start a Cooperative/NGO/Foundation for Communities and Seminar on how to invest money. ERDB also line-up several activities like A talk on women entrepreneurship, tianggehan, Forum on Women Environmental Governance, Gising-Diwa in Putho- Tuntungin Elementary School, Los Baños, Laguna, Seminar on “Unearthing a Miracle Powder Treasure for Health, Ecology and Wealth”, Young Women’s Perspective on Environment: An art contest and the Seminar on Women in the World of IT. Series of lectures on Gender Sensitivity and Gender Responsive Planning, Livelihood Training on T-shirt printing, catering and fastfood business operation were conducted by MGB. Also conducted by the MGB was the 4th International MGB GAD Focal Point Conference.  LMB and PAWB conducted Kabuhayang Swak na swak para sa mga kawani ng LMB, Beauty and Wellness & Urban gardening and Symposium on Ugnayan ng Kababaihan at kabuhayan, respectively.

Regional Offices Initiated Activities

DENR-Regional Offices also conducted several activities during the month-long celebration, as follows:

Region 7     : Issuance of Regional Special Order No. 72-2007reconstituting DENR7 Regional GAD Focal Point System

Display of month-long photo exhibit giving tribute to women employees/achievers of the Region

Lecture on the history of Women’s Month and RA 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and Children), Rights of women, women empowerment and womanhood, Property and Land Rights, Women’s towards Globalization,

Participation in the 7th Women’s Congress-Cebu    Province

Educational tour to a limestone mining company, the Lazi Bay Resources, Inc.

Solid waste recycling

Symposium on Health Awareness and Free Medical Check-up, giving away of free medicines and vitamins

ENR related activities such as establishment of forest nursery inside PENRO Oriental Negros, Potting Session, Mangrove planting and Patent Distribution

Region 8  :    Kick off Program

Potting Session

Bry. Forum and Lecture on Violence Against Women and Children

Seminar on Cooperatives and IGP Forum with the farmer beneficiaries

Region 9 :     Over the counter seminar on Solid Waste Management, Water and Air Pollution and Climate Change

Information and Education Campaign in different barangays in the west and east coast of Zamboanga City, Provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga Del Sur and Zamboanga Del Norte

Region 10:  Thanksgiving mass, Training on Curing Meat Products, Handog Titulo, Skills Development Training for Upland women on Cutflower production, Lecture on Global warming and the Documentary Film Showing of “An Inconvenient Truth”.

Region 11: Kick-Off Program, Foot Parade, Trainings/Orientations/Seminar, Handicraft’s Fair, Participation in the Women’s Summit, Mangrove Tree planting, Office clean-up,  Attendance in the Comval Province Council of Women, Roadside tree planting, photo exhibit, and Lecture on the role and contribution of Women in Development

CARAGA :   RDC-GADCC Motorcade and the annual “Kalandrakas sa Kababaihan”

Trade fair and second hand garment sale, film showing, bingo game, Inter-subcommittee sports fest, fun walk, IEC and blood letting

Launching of the Search for Women’s Best Practices on Livelihood and Economic Activities

Seminar-Workshop on Developing Women for   livelihood and Leadership Roles.

Training/Seminar on Solid Waste Management, and Lectures on Garbage Crisis Situationer, Salient Points of RA 9003, Composting, Recycling, Material Recovery Facility, and Final Disposal Facilities and Paper Beads Making (EMB CARAGA)

For other Regions, Women’s Month was also observed. They hang their streamers, conducted kick-off program, participated in the National Women’s Day Celebration and in the simultaneous conduct of Potting Session.