PCW representatives present programs to legislative body

On Monday’s regular session presided over by Vice Mayor Raineir Joaquin V. Uy, Councilor Joyleen Mercedes L. Balaba, chair of the City Council committee on social services, introduced the representatives of the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) who announced the creation of the Philippine Commission on Women North Mindanao Field Office (PCW-NMFO).

Balaba said this is the first field office of the PCW since its creation, in line with the government’s desire to bring the government closer to the people especially to women.

The Gavel learned the Mindanao Field Office is directly under the supervision of its Executive Director Atty. Kristine Rosary E. Yuson-Chaves and headed by Atty. Khristine Kay M. Lazarito-Calingin, GAD Specialist.

Established in August 2021, the PCW-NMFO is located at Tomas Saco St., Nazareth and will operate and cover the north region of Mindanao (Regions 9, 10 and 13).

It intends to localize the Magna Carta of Women (MCW) and make its benefits more evident and felt by women and men in communities and determine specific gender issues and concerns at the local level especially as a result of the pandemic.

This pilot project results will demonstrate value of closer coordination with sub-national level and shall also address increased demand for technical assistance on and monitoring the use of the GAD budget as well as the responsive implementation of programs/projects at the local level.

The PCW field office is responsible for representing PCW in regional and local mechanisms on GAD-related concerns, and reviewing and influencing regional and local policies, plans and programs to become gender-responsive in all government agencies and offices.

It shall likewise assess the level of gender mainstreaming of sub-national agencies and local government units (LGUs), coordinate the provision of technical assistance to local agencies on gender-responsive policy development, planning and programming, and developing and assisting local learning hubs on GAD.

Considered as a “Mini-PCW”, NMFO targets the PCW advocacies and disseminated laws, women peace and security sector, capacity-development of the DILG in Regions 9, 10 and 13.

According to Atty. Chaves, the five-percent fund shall be taken from the total budget of the city’s overall budget. It may be misconstrued as a large sum devoted to projects exclusively for women but, actually, the purpose of the GAD fund is to equally address the gender issues of women, men and the LGBTQ community of the city.

The projects and programs of the field office shall be formulated as unique and customized according to the needs of the city.

Our obligation here is to elevate and surface these gender issues and the city has to create policies and programs on how we can address these issues. We do hope that we can give a lecture on gender and development as well as how to create your gender agenda and how to go about the GAD plans and budget,” Atty. Chaves manifested.