In law, but not always in practice, women have most of the rights and protections accorded to men. Women continued to face some discrimination in employment, despite the fact that more women than men have secondary and higher education degrees. Unemployment rates for women remained higher than for men.
The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, composed of 10 government officials and 13 NGO leaders appointed by the president, acted as an oversight body whose goal is to press for effective implementation of programs benefiting women.
Children
The government devoted considerable resources to the education, welfare, and development of children. The Department of Education (DepEd) had the largest budget of any cabinet department: 12.3 percent of the national budget. Nevertheless, children faced serious problems.
Elementary and secondary education is free and is compulsory through age 11, but the quality of education remained poor due in part to inadequate resources. During the year according to DepEd figures, the estimated annual per pupil expenditure for basic education was $115 (P5,875). The DepEd budget for this year was $2.16 billion (P110 billion). The public school enrollment rate for 2005-06 was 74 percent, slightly down from 76 percent for the 2004-05 school year. According to UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) statistics, girls and boys attend school in approximately equal numbers.
According to government reports, 68.3 percent of children were well nourished, and 70 percent were fully immunized. The child mortality rate was 42 out of 1,000 children under age five. Most of the malnourished children were in villages in the southern provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, and Tawi-Tawi. According to UNICEF data from 1996 to 2004, 28 percent of children under age five were moderately or severely underweight.
Child abuse remained a problem. DSWD offices served 6,234 victims of child abuse from January to September, of whom 70 percent were girls. Approximately 50 percent of the girls were victims of sexual abuse, while 5 percent (198 girls) were victims of sexual exploitation. The majority of the boys had been abandoned or neglected. Several cities ran crisis centers for abused women and children. The problem of foreign pedophiles continued, and the government continued to prosecute accused pedophiles vigorously. Some children also were victims of police abuse while in detention for committing minor crimes. In March 2005 the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies released a report highlighting child pornography as a significant problem in the country.
Child prostitution continued to be a serious problem (see section 5, Trafficking). During the year the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) ordered the closure of three establishments for allegedly prostituting minors. The trials for these cases were on-going at year’s end.
During the year the NPA and ASG targeted children for recruitment as combatants and noncombatants. There were an estimated 2,000 child soldiers in the country. By mid-year, an International Labor Organization (ILO)-led program demobilized and reintegrated into society 300 children. The NPA claimed that it assigned persons 15 to 18 years of age to self defense and noncombatant duties; however, there were reports that the NPA continued to use minors in combat. In a July 2004 report, the Council for Welfare of Children estimated that children constituted between 13 to 18 percent of armed rebel combatants. In the last several years, the AFP on numerous occasions captured or killed NPA fighters who turned out to be minors.
