This month we are celebrating National Women's Month as well as the International Women's Day (#IWD2016). In line with this, the local government of Quezon City together with the UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) implemented the Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Initiative.
Quezon City–Three out of five women have experienced a form of sexual harassment while commuting in Metro Manila, according to a new research, “Baseline Study on How safe are women in our city streets” commissioned by Quezon City local government and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women). And even more, alarming is that 1 in 3 of these women experienced the worst forms of sexual harassment such as witnessing male public exposure and masturbation, and rubbing or groping (panghihipo) inside the MRT/ jeepneys.
To put a stop to street harassment and sexual violence against women and girls (SVAWG) in public spaces, the LGU and UN Women held back-to-back events to commemorate International Women’s Day (#IWD2016) as well as to kick-off the celebrations in March as the National Women’s Month.
The first was a press conference at the QCX Museum, which saw the launch of the research, also revealed that the Quezon City Local Government just passed amendments to the Gender and Development Code increasing penalties for sexual harassment and sexual violence against women in public spaces to a range of one to five thousand pesos (Php1,000 to Php5,000) for the varying severity of offenses.
