Council holds public consultation on VAWC, gender-based violence

The City Council Committee on Women and Urban Poor and the Local Committee Against Trafficking and Violence Against Women and Children (LCAT-VAWC) conducted a Public Consultation on VAWC and Other Forms of Gender-based Violence last November 25, 2025 at the Venus Park view hotel.

Participants of the consultation were administrative officers of the various offices of the city government, gender and development focal persons, representatives from the barangays, human resource officers of hotel and other accommodation establishments, and officers of the Men Opposed to Violence Against Women and Children Everywhere (MOVE) Baguio city government chapter.

Councilor Betty Lourdes F. Tabanda, Chairperson of the Committee on Women and Urban Poor and LCAT-VAWC vice chairperson, said that the consultation was aimed at eliciting the insights of the public on localizing the national laws to tailor-fit the prevailing situation in the city, especially in terms of having a child protection policy and those related to the Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children and Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Materials (OSAEC-CSAEM).

The proposed ordinances mandating the adoption of the city’s child protection policy and prohibiting acts of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children and the anti-child sexual abuse or exploitation materials in the city with corresponding penalties, providing a supportive environment for the survivors were presented and discussed during the said consultation.

Lawyer Lulu G. Reyes, head of the Legal Education Committee of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Baguio-Benguet chapter, shared stories on how young children were exposed to online abuse and exploitation by no less than their parents in exchange for huge payments from the perpetrators who are overseas.

She expressed support to the enactment of the proposed ordinances to help in cascading efforts of the government to curb the proliferation of the new form of abuse on women and children at the local level.

For her part, lawyer Katrina Gynne Santiago-Bosantog of the Public Attorney’s Office and the Baguio Justice Zone discussed the salient features of Republic Act (RA) 11313 or the Safe Spaces Act which expanded the coverage of the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law to public places and not limited to work places alone.

Further, she claimed that violation of the Safe Spaces law can happen among peers because the feelings of supposed victims matter most, especially when they feel harassed, among others, unlike in the old law where there is violation of the law when the victim of such harassment is a subordinate of a superior.

The participants were also oriented on the organization of the Men Opposed to Violence Against Women and Children Everywhere (MOVE) Baguio City government chapter to rally male workers and those from the barangays to organize similar groups in their respective work places or in the different barangays. – Dexter A. See