SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House BILL NOLO35_

Introduced by: Gabriela Women's Party Reps. LUZVIMINDA C. ILAGAN and EMMI A. DE JESUS

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This bill was first filed in the 13" Congress and filed again successively in the 14" and 15" Congress. It
was finally heard and deliberated by the Committee on Women and Gender Equality of the 15" Congress,
resulting in Committee Report No, 907 which approved the bill without amendments.

The International Women’s Day (IWD) has gone a long way since it was first observed by militant women
textile workers in New York in 1909. Spreading across the continents, especially in countries with rapidly
growing women workers, it had become by the first decade of the previous century a truly international
event that women observed it even during the two world wars. Through sustained observance by militant
women, IWD has become emblematic of the women’s role in society and their vital contributions to history
and human progress as well as of their fight against violence against women and their struggles for the
right to vote, equal rights and employment opportunities, and liberation from patriarchy.

In 1975, it was finally recognized by the United Nations which set March 8 of every year as the date for its
worldwide observance. In countries like Great Britain, China, Australia and many countries in continental
Europe, the IWD is considered to have the same significance as the Labor Day and is celebrated as a non-
working holiday.

In the Philippines, the IWD was first commemorated in 1971. Its observance hereabouts had focused a
shining light on the role of women in fighting the Marcos dictatorship, establishing a tradition of militant
social involvement with its own long gallery of women martyrs in the fight for national freedom and
democracy and dignity for Filipino women. About a haf of the multitudes that made up the People's Power
that ousted Marcos in 1986 were women. And they have sustained such tradition even in the post-Marcos
era.


Itis therefore just fiting that on March 8, 1988, President Corazon C, Aquino signed Proclamation No. 224
declaring every first week of March as ‘Women’s Week’ and every March 8 as ‘Women's Rights and
International Peace Day’. She supplemented this with Proclamation No. 227, declaring March as ‘Women's
Role in History Month’. In 1990, she signed into law Republic Act No. 6949 that declared March 8 of every
year as a special working holiday to be known as National Women’s Day.

Decades after the IWD was first observed in the country, more and more women in the country have
entered the formal labor force, contributing to the national economy as workers in agricultural plantations,
factories, in the service sector, and as OFWs. Women also constitute half of the employees in the public
sector, including in the government financial institutions (GFls) and government-owned and controlled
corporations (GOCCs).

With the increasing number of women in our labor force, many of them are not even aware that there is a
date in every year that is dedicated to them because, the IWD being merely a working holiday in this
country, they have to report for work. Moreover, the private sector does not have any elaborate program of
activities to make the day truly significant and meaningful, making the IWD as just another day's work for
working women.

Itis because of this that this bill proposes to declare March 8 of every year as a non-working holiday to
allow our working women to celebrate the IWD in a truly meaningful way.

Having been approved without amendments by the Committee on Women and Gender Equality of the 15"
Congress, it is humbly requested of this 16" Congress that this bill be considered a priority and passed
without delay.

sane cig Hononiile
peas os EMMI A. DE ae

Gabriela Women’s Party Gabriela Women's Party



Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Batasan Hills, Quezon City

SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL nol 035

Introduced by: Gabriela Women's Party Reps. LUZVIMINDA C. LAGAN and EMMI A. DE JESUS

AN ACT
AMENDING REPUBLIC ACT 6949, ‘AN ACT TO DELARE MARCH EIGHT OF EVERY YEAR
AS A WORKING HIOLIDAY TO BE KNOWN AS NATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY’, TO MAKE THE
NATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY A NON-WORKING HOLIDAY

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1, The National Women’s Day, declared as March 8 of every year in the Philippines as provided
under Republic Act 6949 is hereby declared a non-working holiday in recognition of the contribution of
women in all aspects of national development and in consonance with the International Women's Day
celebrated around the world.

SECTION 2. Further to the provisions of R.A. 6949, all government agencies at all levels, including
attached agencies and Local Government Units, and government-owned and controlled corporations,
through their GAD Focal Persons, shall prepare and implement a program in the observance of the
National Women’s Day on March 8 of every year, commemorating the role of women in the history of the
country and promoting awareness on women’s rights and participation in national development.

SECTION 3. Pursuant to the Magna Carta of Women, the Philippine Commission on Women, as the
government's primary policy-making body on women and gender equality concerns, shall coordinate,
monitor, and ensure the implementation of this Act.

SECTION 4. Funds for the implementation of this Act shall be taken out of the 5 % Gender and
Development budget alloted ton all government agencies and local government units.


SECTION 5. If, for any reason, any section or provision of this Act is held to be unconstitutional or invalid,
the validity of other sections herein shall not be affected thereby.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days following its publication in two national newspapers
of general circulation,

Approved,