SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
)
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
)
First Regular Session 
)
SENATE
S. B. No. 132G
(m 
a’«'a£e
of l!jr fe p a rta rjr
Introduced by Senator Ana Theresia “ Risa” Hontiveros - Baraquel
AN ACT DEFINING GENDER-BASED STREET AND PUBLIC SPACES 
HARASSMENT, PROVIDING PROTECTIVE MEASURES AND PRESCRIBING 
PENALTIES THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
EXPLANATORY NOTE
An overwhelming 88% of women aged 18 to 24 years old experienced sexual 
harassment in the streets (SWS, 2016). While wolf-whistling and catcalling are the 
more common cases, other forms of sexual harassment include lascivious language, 
stalking, 
rubbing or touching, 
indecent gestures, exhibitionism and 
public 
masturbation. 58% of these incidents take place on the streets and small alleys, they 
have also been reported to happen in public vehicles, public washrooms, schools, 
and workplaces.
This phenomenon hampers freedom of movement. Evidence compiled by the United 
Nations Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Program demonstrate indubitably 
harassment in public spaces reduces the ability to participate in school, work and 
public life, and access to essential services and their enjoyment of cultural and 
recreational opportunities. It also negatively impacts their health and well-being.
Despite the fact that street harassment is a daily reality for an overwhelming majority 
of Filipinas and LGBTs, there are no clear-cut laws that specifically address this 
malaise. Provisions of the Revised Penal Code on unjust vexation do not cover with 
exactitude gender-based, misogynistic and homophobic public spaces harassment, 
whilst provisions on sexual harassment only at present cover harassment in the 
workplace between a superior and subordinate.
Hence, a law that penalizes gender-based street and public spaces harassment is 
long-overdue. This bill provides penalties against unwanted comments, gestures, and 
actions forced on a person in a public place without their consent and is directed at 
them because of their actual or perceived sex, gender, gender expression, or sexual 
orientation and identity, including but not limited to unwanted cursing, wolf-whistling, 
cat-calling, leering, sexist, homophobic or transphobic slurs, persistent requests for 
someone’s name, number or destination after clear refusal, persistent telling of 
sexual jokes, use of sexual names, comments and demands, following, flashing, 
public masturbation, groping, and stalking. It contains specific provisions for 
harassment in schools, harassment in streets, harassment in public utility vehicles, 
and harassment in privately-owned spaces that are open to the public. It provides 
instances of 'qualified gender-based street and public spaces harassment’, i.e., when 
the offense takes places in a public utility vehicle and the perpetrator is the driver and 
the victim is a passenger, when the victim is a minor, when the perpetrator is a 
member of the uniformed services, and lastly, when the offense takes place in the


premises of a government agency and the perpetrator is a government employee. 
Lastly, the bill provides for awareness-raising programs and educational modules in 
order to propagate awareness of and vigilance against gender-based street and 
public spaces harassment.
The passage of this bill is earnestly sought.
ANA THERESIA “ RISA” HONT 
BARAQUEL
EROS-


w
SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
)
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
)
First Regular Session 
)
SENATE
S. B. No. 1326
c! l,,f ^^r:rrt?’ r?
Introduced by Senator Ana Theresia “ Risa” Hontiveros - Baraquel
AN ACT DEFINING GENDER-BASED STREET AND PUBLIC SPACES 
HARASSMENT, PROVIDING PROTECTIVE MEASURES AND PRESCRIBING 
PENALTIES THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines 
in Congress assembled:
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SECTION 1. Title. -  This Act shall be known as the “Safe Streets and Public Spaces Act 
of 2017.”
SECTION 2. Declaration of Principles. -  It is the policy of the State to value the dignity 
of every human person and guarantee full respect for human rights. It is likewise the 
policy of the state to recognize the role of women in nation-building and ensure the 
fundamental equality before the law of women and men.
SECTION 3. Gender-based Street and Public Spaces Harassment. -  Gender-based 
street and public spaces harassment is constitutive of unwanted comments, gestures, 
and actions forced on a person in a public space without their consent and is directed at 
them because of their actual or perceived sex, gender, gender expression, or sexual 
orientation and identity, including but not limited to unwanted cursing, wolf-whistling, 
cat-calling, leering, sexist, homophobic or transphobic slurs, persistent requests for 
someone’s name, number and destination after clear refusal, persistent telling of sexual 
jokes, use of sexual names, comments and demands, following, flashing, public 
masturbation, groping, stalking, and all analogous cases of sexual harassment and/or 
assault; provided that legitimate expressions of indigenous culture and tradition with no 
intent to harass shall not be penalized. Public spaces shall include but are not limited to, 
streets and alleys, public parks, schools, government buildings, malls, bars, restaurants, 
transportation terminals, public markets, and public utility vehicles.
SECTION 4. Specific Acts and Penalties. -  The following acts constitutive of gender- 
based street and public spaces harassment will be penalized under the corresponding 
schedule:
a. Light violations. -  Cursing, wolf-whistling, cat-calling, leering; persistent requests 
for name and contact details; the use of words tending to ridicule on the basis of 
actual or perceived sex, gender expression, or sexual orientation and identity 
including sexist, homophobic and transphobic slurs; or the persistent telling of 
sexual jokes,
i. First offense shall be punished by a fine of PhPI 000.00 and/or 
community service of eight (8) hours inclusive of a Gender 
Sensitivity Seminar to be conducted by the Philippine National
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Police (PNP) in coordination with the local government unit and the 
Philippine Commission on Women (PCW),
ii. Second offense shall be shall be punished by aresto menor (six to 
ten days) or a fine of PhP2000.00,
iii. Third offense shall be punished by aresto menor (eleven to thirty 
days) or a fine of PhPSOOO.OO.
b. Medium violations. -  Making offensive body gestures at someone, exposing 
private parts for the sexual gratification of the perpetrator with the effect of 
demeaning, harassing, threatening or intimidating the offended party,
i. First offense shall be punished by a fine of PhPSOOO.OO and/or 
community service of eight (8) hours inclusive of a Gender 
Sensitivity Seminar, to be conducted by the PNP in coordination 
with the local government unit and the PCW,
ii. Second offense shall be punished by aresto menor (eleven to thirty 
days) or a fine of PhP4000.00,
iii. Third offense shall be punished by aresto mayor (one to six months) 
or a fine of PhPSOOO.OO.
c. Severe violations -  Stalking; all the acts mentioned in paragraphs a and b, when 
accompanied by touching, pinching or brushing against the body of a person; or 
any touching, pinching, or brushing against the genitalia, anus, groin, breasts, 
inner thighs, face, or buttocks even when not accompanied by acts mentioned in 
paragraphs a and b,
i. First offense shall be punished by aresto menor (eleven to thirty 
days) or a fine of PhP4000.00, provided that it includes attendance 
in a Gender Sensitivity Seminar, to be conducted by the PNP in 
coordination with the local government unit and the PCW,
ii. Second offense shall be punished by aresto mayor (one to six 
months) or a fine of PhPSOOO.OO,
iii. Third offense shall be punished by aresto mayor (one to six months) 
or a fine of PhP10,000.00.
Above penalties are without prejudice to administrative sanctions that may be imposed 
if the perpetrator is a government employee. Nothing in this law shall prevent LGUs 
from coming up with ordinances that impose heavier penalties under the acts specified 
herein. When the perpetrator is a stranger to the victim, absence of consent is 
presumed.
SECTION 5. “No means no” Principle. When the victim utters the phrase, “no means 
no" or its translation in the local dialect, the presumption of absence of consent is 
rendered conclusive. The National Commission on the Filipino language shall provide 
official translations of the aforementioned phrase in all local languages. Local 
government units shall disseminate the phrase in its local translation in their 
implementation of this Act and in all information campaigns pertinent to the same.
SECTION 6. Authority to Apprehend Gender-based Street Harassment Perpetrators for 
Light and Medium Offenses. The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for 
Metro Manila, and the local units of the PNP for other provinces, will deputize its


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enforcers to be Anti Sexual Harassment Enforcers (A-SHE). They will be deputized to 
receive complaints on the street and immediately apprehend the offender if the same 
was caught in flagrante delicto. For light and medium offenses, A-SHEs may 
immediately impose the fine for, or issue orders for Community Service. The A-SHE 
unit, together with the Women and Children’s Desk of PNP stations, will keep a ledger 
of offenders of this Act for purposes of determining if the offender is a first, second, or 
third offender.
SECTION 7. Qualified Gender-based Street and Public Spaces Harassment. - The 
penalty next higher in degree will be applied in the following cases:
a. if the Act takes place in a common carrier or public utility vehicle, including but 
not limited to jeepneys, taxis, tricycles, or app-based transport network vehicle 
services, where the perpetrator is the driver of the vehicle and the offended party 
is a passenger;
if the offended party is a minor;
if the perpetrator is a member of the uniformed services, such as the PNP and 
the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the act was perpetrated while the 
perpetrator was in uniform.
If the Act takes place in the premises of a government agency offering front-line 
services to the public and the perpetrator is a government employee.
b.
c.
d.
SECTION 8. Gender-based Harassment in Restaurants, Bars, Cinemas, Malls, 
Buildings and Other Privately-owned Places Open to the Public. Restaurants, bars, 
cinemas, malls, buildings and other privately-owned places open to the public shall 
adopt a zero-tolerance policy against harassment. These establishments should provide 
assistance to victims of harassment by helping coordinate with local police authorities in 
the immediate aftermath of the reported harassment, making CCTV footage available, 
and providing a safe gender-sensitive environment to encourage victims to report 
harassment at the first instance. The PCW will develop a mandatory seminar against 
public spaces harassment, attendance in which shall be made a prerequisite for 
business permit renewal. All restaurants, bars, cinemas and other places of recreation 
shall install in their business establishments clearly-visible warning signs against public 
spaces harassment, including the anti-harassment hotline number in bold letters, and 
shall designate at least one anti-sexual harassment officer to receive gender-based 
harassment complaints. Security guards in these places may be deputized to 
apprehend perpetrators caught in flagrante delicto and are required to immediately 
coordinate with local authorities.
SECTION 9. Gender-based Harassment in Schools. Each school, whether grade 
school, high school, tertiary, or vocational institutions, shall designate an officer in 
charge of receiving complaints regarding violations of this Act, and shall ensure that 
complainants are provided with a gender-sensitive environment that is both respectful of 
complainants’ needs and conducive to truth-telling. Every school must adopt and 
publish grievance procedures for students to file complaints under this Act. Even if an 
individual does not want to file a complaint or does not request that the school take any 
action on the student’s behalf, if a school knows or reasonably should know about 
possible sexual harassment or sexual violence, it must promptly investigate to 
determine what occurred and then take appropriate steps to resolve the situation. If a 
school knows or reasonably should know about sexual harassment or sexual violence 
that creates a hostile environment, the school must take immediate action to eliminate 
the sexual harassment or sexual violence, prevent its recurrence, and address its 
effects.
SECTION 10. Gender-based Harassment in Public Utility Vehicles. In addition to the 
penalties in Section 4 and Section 6.a of this Act, the Land Transportation Office (LTO)


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may also cancel the license of perpetrators, and the Land Transportation Franchising 
and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) may suspend or revoke the franchise of transportation 
operators. Gender-based harassment in PUVs where the perpetrator is the driver of the 
vehicle shall also constitute a breach of contract of carriage, for the purpose of creating 
a presumption of negligence on the part of the owner/operator of the vehicle in the 
selection and supervision of employees and rendering the former solidarily liable for the 
offenses of the latter.
SECTION 11. PNP Women and Children’s Desks. The Women and Children’s desks 
now existing in all police stations shall act on and attend to all complaints covered under 
this Act, and shall coordinate with A-SFIE officers on the street, security guards in 
privately-owned spaces open to the public, and anti-sexual harassment officers in 
government and private offices or schools in the enforcement of the provisions of this 
Act.
SECTION 12. Educational Modules. Courses in high school and college shall include 
age-appropriate educational modules against street and public spaces harassment, 
such modules to be developed by the Department of Education (DepEd), the 
Commission on Fligher Education (CFIED) and the PCW.
SECTION 13. Safety Audits. Local government units are required to conduct safety 
audits every three years to determine effective implementation of the Act within their 
jurisdictions. Such audits shall be multi-sectoral and participatory, with consultations 
undertaken with schools, police officers, and civil society organizations.
SECTION 14. Separability Clause. - If any provision or part hereof is held invalid or 
unconstitutional, the remaining provisions not affected thereby shall remain valid and 
subsisting.
SECTION 15. Repealing Clause. - Any law, presidential decree or issuance, executive 
order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation contrary to or 
inconsistent with the provisions of this Act is hereby repealed, modified or amended 
accordingly.
SECTION 16. Effectivity. - This act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication 
in the Official Gazette or in any two (2) newspapers of general circulation in the 
Philippines.
Approved,