The mere failure or inability of a man to provide financial support is not a crime. Treating it as such would perpetuate the stereotype that women are always incapable of supporting themselves or their families.
On the contrary, this Court has noted that "[i]n this day and age, women have taken on increasingly important roles in the financial and material support of their families." Moreover, I wish to emphasize the ponencia's statement that "while [Republic Act No. 9262 was indeed enacted to protect women, it was not meant to discount women's ability to provide for themselves, especially when they are able-bodied."
In Filipino culture, the husband is called "haligi ng tahanan," or the strong pillar who establishes the home. Men are culturally expected to provide for their families. Meanwhile, the wife is referred to as "ilaw ng tahanan," because she is expected to be the warm, guiding light of the home who must take on the role of bearing and raising the children.
In the past, women were forced to stay home and were not allowed to pursue education and employment. However, recent statistics show that society appears to have improved in this regard:
On the labor front, the Philippine labor force (15 years old and above) numbered 40,426,000 in 2012 (64.2% of the population), 61% of whom were males and 39% of whom were females. The labor force participation rate ("LFPR") of females increased significantly from 30.6% in 1970 to 50% in 2012. While the LFPR took a downward trend in 2013, from 64.2% to 63.9%, the decrease was more pronounced among the male labor workforce.
In 1974, 36.6% of the women in the labor force were engaged in agriculture and related work. Over the years, however, the number of workers employed in the service sector has overtaken the number of workers employed in the agricultural sector, such that employment has been driven by the service sector. In 2012, when the number of women employed stood at 14,751,000, 28% were in the service sector, particularly wholesale and retail trade; 20% in the agricultural sector; 10.3% in other service activities; and lastly, 9% in the industry sector, mainly in manufacturing industry. Thus, women in the industry and service sectors combined to outnumber women in agricultural sector.
Nevertheless, the agricultural sector continues to play an important role in employment and in job creation.
Statistics show that women's share in professional and managerial positions is steadily increasing, although the rate of progress is slow. In 2012, 14,751 of 37,600 or 39.2% of employed persons in major occupation groups were women. Of the 14,751 women employed, only 11.6% of these were employed as professionals, technicians, and associate professionals, while 18% were women employed as corporate executives, managers, and supervisors. These data show that women are still markedly under represented in managerial jobs compared to the overall share of their employment.
[This Court cites E. (Leo) D. Battad, Review, The Continuing Narrative of the Economic Emancipation of Filipino Working Women, 88 PHIL. L. J. 601, 601-602 (2014)]
Yet even though women make up a large portion of the work force, they are still somehow expected to take primary responsibility for childcare and the management of the home. Professor E. (Leo) D. Battad observed:
In a society that expects women to take care of the children and do household chores, working women confront the problem of a double-burden, or even multiple burdens in terms of longer hours of work and a wider breadth of responsibility.
There is also the idea that only certain professions are suitable for women and vice versa:
Then there is also the pre-employment practice of sex-based preferences in the hiring phase. Women and men continue to experience discriminatory practices in advertisements through sex-based preferences, thereby reinforcing the traditional stereotypes of "women's work" and "men's work." This practice, in effect, limits the worker's choices and access to employment opportunities.
The lack of protection in the pre-employment phase contributes to the phenomenon of occupation segregation. The equality of pay between men and women is compromised due to existing practices of exclusion or preference for either worker for particular work or occupation. Also, there is an absence of affirmative actions to combat occupation segregation, such as introducing schemes that would encourage women and men to enter in nontraditional skills or occupation.
Even the courts are not immune to prejudices and biases against women. In Maxey v. Court of Appeals, this Court, despite its intent to uphold a woman's property rights, perpetuated the traditional gender role of wives as the spouse who manages the affairs of the household. This Court stated that "[t]he major, if not the full[,] responsibility of running the household remains with the woman. She is the administrator of the household." Further, the conduct and language of some judges towards women reveals their prejudices and lack of gender sensitivity.This Court has only recently revisited the "woman's honor" doctrine where it says that "no young Filipina of decent repute would publicly admit that she has been sexually abused, unless that is the truth, for it is her natural instinct to protect her honor."
We advocated against the Maria Clara stereotype of a demure and reserved Filipino woman and in favor of the evaluation of the testimony of a private complainant of rape without gender bias or cultural misconception. The credibility of a private complainant's testimony should not be affected just because they are not the fictitious and generalized demure girl, or the epitome of the Maria Clara Stereotype, especially when their testimony is supported by the other pieces of evidence presented in the case.
In Kane v. Roggenkamp, this Court called out a Regional Trial Court judge's apparent severe lack of gender sensitivity. The trial court judge acquitted the husband who was charged with physically abusing his wife under Republic Act No. 9262. Primarily, the trial court judge asserted that the woman chose to conceal her lover's abuse. According to him, "the hesitation of the woman to immediately leave her lover is an unnatural act and, hence, unbelievable." This Court then noted that "[a] more enlightened interpretation of the evidence" requires "a less caricaturized, less patriarchal set of assumptions."
Republic Act No. 9262 was enacted to recognize the systemic presence of patriarchy in our society, and how this contributes to the abuse of women. The law acknowledges that women are more often the victims of domestic abuse not because they are inherently weaker, but because of the unequal power relationship between women and men. As a result, the widespread gender bias and prejudice against women have historically hampered their growth, forcing them into subordination to men.
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This Court discussed the deep historical roots of unequal power relations between women and men in Estacio v. Estacio:
Hence, Republic Act No. 9262 has been upheld as a valid law meant to address this historical and societal problem.
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This unequal power relation is better understood when one considers its deep historical roots:
The perspective portraying women as victims with a heritage of victimization results in the unintended consequence of permanently perceiving all women as weak. This has not always been accepted by many other strands in the Feminist Movement.
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As early as the 70s, the nationalist movement raised questions on the wisdom of a women's movement and its possible divisive effects, as "class problems deserve unified and concentrated attention [while] the women question is vague, abstract, and does not have material base."
In the early 80s, self-identifying feminist groups were formed. The "emancipation theory" posits that female crime has increased and has become more masculine in character as a result of the women's liberation movement.
Feminism also has its variants among Muslims. In 2009, Musawah ("equality" in Arabic) was launched as a global movement for equity and justice in the Muslim family. It brought together activists, scholars, legal practitioners, policy makers, and grassroots women and men from all over the world. Their belief is that there cannot be justice without equality, and its holistic framework integrates Islamic teachings, universal human rights, national constitutional guarantees of equality, and the lived realities of women and men.
Courts, like all other government departments and agencies, must ensure the fundamental equality of women and men before the law. In our pursuit of equality, we need to acknowledge and dismantle the "obstacle[s] to the full realization of the potentialities of women."
Nevertheless, it is also improper to think that women are always victims. This will only reinforce their already disadvantaged position. The perspective that portrays women as victims with a history of victimization results in the unintended consequence of permanently perceiving all women as weak. Indisputably, to consider women as the weaker sex is discriminatory.
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Laws such as Republic Act No. 9262 are intended to negate the patriarchy in our culture, not to bolster it. In safeguarding the interests of women as a discriminated class, we must be careful not to perpetuate the very prejudices and biases that contribute to their discrimination.
There is now more space to believe that portraying only women as victims will not always promote gender equality before the law. It sometimes aggravates the gap by conceding that women have always been dominated by men.
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Societal norms and traditions dictate people to think that men are leaders, pursuers, providers, and take on dominant roles in society while women are nurturers, men's companions and supporters, and take on subordinate roles in society.42 If Sections 5(e) and 5(i) of Republic Act No. 9262 are interpreted to mean that the accused man's failure or inability to provide financial automatically entails criminal liability, then this depiction will be reinforced rather than corrected. This confirms the false idea that women are incapable of supporting themselves and their families. Applied correctly, Sections 5(e) and 5(i) of Republic Act No. 9262 should not result in the over-patronage of women. [ G.R. No. 224946. November 09, 2021 ] CHRISTIAN PANTONIAL ACHARON VS. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES CONCURRING OPINION 👨⚖️ LEONEN, J.
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