Press Release
May 23, 2009

Zubiri: Women, children are Senate priorities

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri on Saturday said the Senate is not insensitive on issues and concerns affecting women and children in particular.

The Majority Leader cited that the Senate has approved the Magna Carta for Women months ahead of the House of Representatives.

The Senate acted on the Magna Carta for Women "with arduousness to finally set the standards on how women should be treated", Zubiri said.

The Magna Carta will also provide enabling mechanism for the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The measure was sponsored by Sen. Jamby Madrigal in the Senate and Gabriela Representative Liza Maza as counterpart at the House.

Zubiri was reacting on the editorial issue of one of the leading newspaper in the country published today (Saturday) stating that "since 2007, about 14 bills have been filed at the Senate, proposing to penalize video and image voyeurism and strengthening laws against pornography. Several of the laws focus on protecting children from exploitation for pornographic purposes. The bills are moving through the legislative mill as slowly as the pace of Philippine justice."

The editorial likewise stated that while "there are enough bills filed in Congress to protect children as well as women from this type of abuse. With the scandal over Hayden Kho's sex videos, perhaps lawmakers will speed up action on those bills."

"We in the Senate had approved the Anti-Child Pornography Law last Nov. 24, 2008 and it is now pending at the House of Representatives and unfortunately the delay is with them. It's SB 2317. I believe you were misinformed that we hadn't passed it yet but we have acted on it over 6 months ago," Zubiri said.

The Majority Leader also appealed to the newspaper to make a correction on the editorial issue entitled "Voyeurs" noting that "it implies that Senators are not sensitive to women and children welfare and issues which are our utmost priority."

Zubiri added that the Anti Child Pornography Law was one of the first bills approved by the Senate under the leadership of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

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