REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7192 - AN ACT
PROMOTING THE INTEGRATION OF WOMEN AS FULL AND EQUAL PARTNERS OF MEN IN
DEVELOPMENT AND NATION BUILDING AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Section 1. Title. — This Act shall be cited as the "Women in
Development and Nation Building Act."
Sec. 2. Declaration of Policy. — The State
recognizes the role of women in nation building and shall ensure the
fundamental equality before the law of women and men. The State shall
provided women rights and opportunities equal to that of men.
To attain the foregoing policy:
(1) A substantial portion of official development
assistance funds received from foreign governments and multilateral
agencies and organizations shall be set aside and utilized by the
agencies concerned to support programs and activities for women;
(2) All government departments shall ensure that
women benefit equally and participate directly in the development
programs and projects of said department, specifically those funded
under official foreign development assistance, to ensure the full
participation and involvement of women in the development process; and
(3) All government departments and agencies shall
review and revise all their regulations, circulars, issuances and
procedures to remove gender bias therein.
Sec. 3. Responsible Agency. — The National
Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) shall primarily be
responsible for ensuring the participation of women as recipients in
foreign aid, grants and loans. It shall determine and recommend the
amount to be allocated for the development activity involving women.
Sec. 4. Mandate. — The NEDA, with the assistance
of the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, shall ensure
that the different government departments, including its agencies and
instrumentalities which, directly or indirectly, affect the
participation of women in national development and their integration
therein:
(1) Formulate and prioritize rural or countryside
development programs or projects, provide income and employment
opportunities to women in the rural areas and thus, prevent their heavy
migration from rural to urban or foreign countries;
(2) Include an assessment of the extent to which
their programs and/or projects integrate women in the development
process and of the impact of said programs or projects on women,
including their implications in enhancing the self-reliance of women in
improving their income;
(3) Ensure the active participation of women and
women's organizations in the development programs and/or projects
including their involvement in the planning, design, implementation,
management, monitoring and evaluation thereof;
(4) Collect sex-disaggregated data and include such
data in its program/project paper, proposal or strategy;
(5) Ensure that programs and/or projects are designed
so that the percentage of women who receive assistance is approximately
proportionate to either their traditional participation in the targeted
activities or their proportion of the population, whichever is higher.
Otherwise, the following should be stated in the program/project paper,
proposal or strategy;
(a) The obstacle in achieving the goal;
(b) The steps being taken to overcome those
obstacles; and
(c) To the extent that steps are not being taken to
overcome those obstacles, why they are not being taken.
(6) Assist women in activities that are of critical
significance to their self-reliance and development.
Sec. 5. Equality in Capacity to Act. — Women of
legal age, regardless of civil status, shall have the capacity to act
and enter into contracts which shall in every respect be equal to that
of men under similar circumstances.
In all contractual situations where married men have the capacity to
act, married women shall have equal rights.
To this end:
(1) Women shall have the capacity to borrow and
obtain loans and execute security and credit arrangement under the same
conditions as men;
(2) Women shall have equal access to all government
and private sector programs granting agricultural credit, loans and
non-material resources and shall enjoy equal treatment in agrarian
reform and land resettlement programs;
(3) Women shall have equal rights to act as
incorporators and enter into insurance contracts; and
(4) Married women shall have rights equal to those of
married men in applying for passport, secure visas and other travel
documents, without need to secure the consent of their spouses.
In all other similar contractual relations, women shall enjoy equal
rights and shall have the capacity to act which shall in every respect
be equal to those of men under similar circumstances.
Sec. 6. Equal Membership in Clubs. — Women shall
enjoy equal access to membership in all social, civic and recreational
clubs, committees, associations and similar other organizations devoted
to public purpose. They shall be entitled to the same rights and
privileges accorded to their spouses if they belong to the same
organization.
Sec. 7. Admission to Military Schools. — Any
provision of the law to the contrary notwithstanding, consistent with
the needs of the services, women shall be accorded equal opportunities
for appointment, admission, training, graduation and commissioning in
all military or similar schools of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
and the Philippine National Police not later than the fourth academic
year following the approval of this Act in accordance with the
standards required for men except for those minimum essential
adjustments required by physiological differences between sexes.
Sec. 8. Voluntary Pag-IBIG, GSIS and SSS Coverage.
— Married persons who devote full time to managing the household and
family affairs shall, upon the working spouse's consent, be entitled to
voluntary Pag-IBIG (Pagtutulungan — Ikaw, Bangko, Industriya at
Gobyerno), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) or Social
Security System (SSS) coverage to the extent of one-half (1/2) of the
salary and compensation of the working spouse. The contributions due
thereon shall be deducted from the salary of the working
spouse.
The GSIS or the SSS, as the case may be, shall issue rules and
regulations necessary to effectively implement the provisions of this
section.
Sec. 9. Implementing Rules. — The NEDA, in
consultation with the different government agencies concerned, shall
issue rules and regulations as may be necessary for the effective
implementation of Section s 2, 3 and 4, of this Act within six (6)
months from its effectivity.
SECTION 10. Compliance Report. — Within six (6)
months from the effectivity of this Act and every six (6) months
thereafter, all government departments, including its agencies and
instrumentalities, shall submit a report to Congress on their
compliance with this Act.
SECTION 11. Separability Clause. — If for any reason
any section or provision of this Act is declared unconstitutional or
invalid, the other sections or provisions hereof which are not affected
thereby shall continue to be in full force and effect.
SECTION 12. Repealing Clause. — The provisions of
Republic Act No. 386, otherwise known as the Civil Code of the
Philippines, as amended, and of Executive Order No. 209, otherwise
known as the Family Code of the Philippines, and all laws, decrees,
executive orders, proclamations, rules and regulations, or parts
thereof, inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.
SECTION 13. Effectivity Clause. — The rights of women
and all the provisions of this Act shall take effect immediately upon
its publication in the Official Gazette or in two (2) newspapers of
general circulation.
Approved: February 12,
1992
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