gensoc

• National Laws


  • Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act (Republic Act No. 9262)
  • Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995 (Republic Act No. 7877)
  • Safe Spaces Act "Bawal Bastos Law" (Republic Act No. 11313)
  • Anti-Rape Law (Republic Act No. 8353)
  • Magna Carta of Women (Republic Act No. 9710)
• Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act (Republic Act No. 9262)


  A law that defines four kinds of violence (physical, psychological, sexual, and economic) and makes VAWC a public crime. It allows for protection orders to be issued against perpetrators and establishes stronger community mechanisms to respond to cases.
• Protection Orders


  • Orders issued to prevent further acts of violence against a woman and her child, and grant other necessary relief to safeguard the victim, minimize disruption in their daily life, and facilitate their ability to independently gain control of their life.
• Reliefs that may be availed through a protection order

  • Prohibition of the perpetrator from threatening, committing, harassing, annoying, contacting, or communicating with the victim
  • Removal and exclusion of the perpetrator from the victim's residence
  • Directing the perpetrator to stay away from the victim and any designated family/household member
  • Directing lawful possession and use by the victim of an automobile and other personal effects
  • Granting temporary or permanent custody of a child/children to the victim and directing the perpetrator to provide support
  • Prohibition of the perpetrator from any use or possession of any firearm or deadly weapon
  • Restitution for actual damages caused by the violence
  • Directing the DSWD or other agency to provide temporary shelter and other social services to the victim
  • Provision of other forms of relief necessary to protect and provide for the safety of the victim
• Rights of Victim-Survivors of VAWC Cases

  Victims have the right to be treated with respect and dignity, avail of legal assistance, receive support services from the DSWD and LGUs, be entitled to legal remedies and support under the Family Code, and be informed of their right to apply for a protection order. The law also provides for the right to privacy of the victim.
• Duties of Barangay Officials in addressing VAWC cases

  • Undertake education programs on RA 9262 and VAWC
  • Have a family violence prevention program including peer counseling for men
  • Support organizing efforts and development programs for women
  • Prioritize livelihood projects for victim-survivors
  • Involve women in planning and implementation of all programs and projects
  • Have an Anti-VAWC desk officer to coordinate a one-stop help desk
  • Ensure all barangay officials and workers undergo gender sensitivity seminars
  • Develop a system to document and report VAWC cases and assistance programs
• Ricky Dinamling, a policeman, was in a five-year relationship with AAA. He would hit AAA's head, pull her hair, and kick her. When AAA went to the police, she was told it was a family problem that could be talked over. Dinamling was later charged for violations of RA 9262.
• After receiving from the accused Rustan via multimedia message service (MMS), a picture of a naked woman with her face superimposed on the figure, the complainant filed an action against Rustan for violation of the VAWC Act or RA 9262.
• Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995 (Republic Act No. 7877)


  A law that defines work-, education-, or training-related sexual harassment as committed by an employer, employee, manager, supervisor, agent, teacher, instructor, professor, coach, trainer, or any other person who, having authority, influence, or moral ascendancy over another in a work or training or education environment, demands, requests, or otherwise requires any sexual favor from the other.
• Theoretical Perspectives on Sexual Harassment

  • Natural/Biological Theory
  • Sex Role Spillover Theory
  • Organizational Theory
  • Socio-Cultural Theory
  • Feminist Theory
• Both biologically and culturally, men have historically occupied a dominant position over women in societies, including the workplace, and considerable data confirms that harassment is widespread and has significant consequences for the employee's health and psychological well-being.
• When Sexual Harassment is Committed in a Work-Related or Employment Setting


  • When the sexual favor is made a condition in hiring, employment, re-employment, compensation, terms, conditions, promotions, or privileges
  • When the acts would impair the employee's rights or privileges under existing labor laws
  • When the acts would result in an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment for the employee
  • Against one who is under the care, custody, or supervision of the offender
  • Against one whose education, training, apprenticeship, or tutorship is entrusted to the offender
  • When the sexual favor is made a condition to the giving of a passing grade, granting of honor and scholarships, or the payment of a stipend, allowance or other benefits, privileges, or consideration
  • When the sexual advances result in an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment for the student, trainee, or apprentice
• Places Where Sexual Harassment Can Be Committed in the Civil Service


  • In the premises of the workplace or office or of the school or training institution
  • In any place where the parties were found, as a result of work or education or training responsibilities or relations
  • At work, education, or training-related social functions
  • While on official businesses outside the office or school or training institution or during work, school, or training-related travel
  • At official conferences, forums, symposia, or training sessions
  • By telephone, cellular phone, fax machine, or electronic mail
• Forms of Sexual Harassment Committed in the Civil Service

  • Physical - Malicious touching, overt sexual advances, gestures with lewd insinuation
  • Verbal - Requests or demands for sexual favors, lurid remarks
  • Use of objects, pictures or graphics, letters, or written notes with sexual underpinnings
  • Other analogous circumstances
• Places where sexual harassment can be committed


  • In any place where the parties were found, as a result of work or education or training responsibilities or relations
  • At work, education, or training-related social functions
  • While on official businesses outside the office or school or training institution or during work, school, or training-related travel
  • At official conferences, for a, symposia, or training sessions
  • By telephone, cellular phone, fax machine, or electronic mail
• Forms of sexual harassment

  • Physical: (a) Malicious touching; (b) Overt sexual advances; (c) Gestures with lewd insinuation
  • Verbal: (a) Requests or demands for sexual favors and (b) Lurid remarks
  • Use of objects, pictures or graphics, letters, or written notes with sexual underpinnings
  • Other forms analogous to the foregoing
• The crime of rape shall hereafter be classified as a Crime Against Persons under Title Eight of Act No. 3815, as amended, otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code
• Rape violates a person's wellbeing and not just one's virginity or purity. The law considers that any person, whether a prostituted person, non-virgin or one who has an active sexual life may be victimized by rape
• Circumstances where rape is committed

  • By a man who shall have carnal knowledge of a woman through force, threat, or intimidation
  • When the offended party is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious
  • By means of fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority
  • When the offended party is under twelve (12) years of age or is demented, even though none of the circumstances mentioned above be present
  • By any person who, under any of the circumstances mentioned in paragraph 1 hereof, shall commit an act of sexual assault by inserting his penis into another person's mouth or anal orifice, or any instrument or object, into the genital or anal orifice of another person
• Reclusion Perpetua


  Imprisonment from 20 to 40 years
• Prision Mayor


  Imprisonment from 6 to 12 years
• Reclusion Temporal or Reclusion Perpetua may be imposed depending on the circumstances surrounding the crime
• The Safe Spaces Act or "Bawal Bastos" Law was signed last April 2019. This is an Act which defines and penalizes gender-based sexual harassment in Streets, Public Spaces, Online, Workplaces, and Educational or Training Institutions, and Providing Protective Measures and Prescribing Penalties Therefor
• 1st Degree Offenses under the Safe Spaces Act

  • Cursing, wolf-whistling, catcalling, leering and intrusive gazing
  • Taunting, cursing, unwanted invitations, misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic, and sexist slurs
  • Persistent unwanted comments on one's appearance
  • Relentless requests for one's personal details
  • Use of words, gestures or actions that ridicule on the basis of SOGIE
  • Persistent telling of sexual jokes, use of sexual names, comments and demands
  • Any statement that has made an invasion on a person's personal space or threatens the person's sense of personal safety
• Penalties for 1st Degree Offenses

  • Php 1,000 fine + 12 hours community service with Gender Sensitivity Seminar
  • 6 to 10 days imprisonment or Php 3,000 fine
  • 11 to 30 days imprisonment + Php 10,000 fine
• 2nd Degree Offenses under the Safe Spaces Act


  • Making offensive body gestures at someone
  • Exposing private parts for the sexual gratification of the perpetrator with the effect of demeaning, harassing, threatening or intimidating the offended party including flashing of private parts, public masturbation, groping, and similar lewd sexual actions
• Penalties for 2nd Degree Offenses

  • Php 10,000 fine + 12 hours community service with Gender Sensitivity Seminar
  • 11 to 30 days imprisonment or Php 15,000 fine
  • 1 month and 1 day to 6 months imprisonment + Php 20,000 fine
• 3rd Degree Offenses under the Safe Spaces Act

  • Stalking
  • Touching, pinching or brushing against the body of the offended person; or any touching, pinching, or brushing against the genitalia, face, arms, anus, groin, breasts, inner thighs, face, buttocks or any part of the victim's body
• Penalties for 3rd Degree Offenses

  • 11 to 30 days imprisonment or Php 30,000 fine
  • 1 month and 1 day to 6 months imprisonment or Php 50,000 fine
  • 6 months imprisonment or Php 100,000 fine
• The Magna Carta of Women (Republic Act No. 9710) is a comprehensive women's human rights law that seeks to eliminate discrimination through the recognition, protection, fulfilment and promotion of the rights of Filipino women, especially those belonging in the marginalized sectors of the society
• The MCW establishes the Philippine government's pledge of commitment to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women's (CEDAW) Committee in its 36th Session in 2006 and to the UN Human Rights Council on its first Universal Periodic Review in 2009
• Salient features of the Magna Carta of Women

  • Achieve 50-50 gender balance in third level positions in government within the next five years
  • Leave benefits of two (2) months with full pay based on gross monthly compensation for women employees who undergo surgery caused by gynecological disorders
  • Non-discrimination in employment in the field of military, police and other similar services that include according the same promotional privileges and opportunities as their men counterpart
  • Provision for equal access and elimination of discrimination in education, scholarships, and training
  • Non-discriminatory and non-derogatory portrayal of women in media and film to raise the consciousness of the general public in recognizing the dignity of women and the role and contribution of women
  • Equal status given to men and women on the titling of the land and issuance of stewardship contracts and patents
• The MCW establishes the responsibility of the government to take actions in order to end discrimination against women
• The MCW mandates all government offices to adopt gender mainstreaming as a strategy for implementing the law and attaining its objectives
• The MCW mandates the planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation for gender and development, the creation and/or strengthening of gender and development focal points, and the generation and maintenance of gender statistics and sex-disaggregated databases to aid in planning, programming and policy formulation
• The Local Government Code of 1991 provides for the election of sectoral representation, including women, in local legislative councils
• The Party List Law provides for the creation of women-oriented or women-based parties to compete under the party-list system. Women is one of the nine sectors identified in the law
• The Labor Code (1989) covers issues, such as night work prohibition, and specifies that employers must provide special facilities for women
• The Women in Nation Building Law (Republic Act 7192) promotes the integration of women as full and equal partners of men in development and nation-building
• The 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law gave Filipino women the right to own land that previously reverted to sons and other male family members