Senate reviews laws that discriminate against women

The Senate committee on youth, women, and family relations on Thursday reviewed several laws which supposedly contain provisions that discriminate against women. "Maraming batas na discriminatory. Maraming kailangang baguhing batas para mabigyan ng kahalagahan ang kababaihan (There are many discriminatory laws. Many laws have to be changed to give importance to women)," Senator Pia Cayetano, head of the Senate committee, told reporters before the hearing on Thursday. Among the provisions tackled during the committee hearing were:

• articles 96, 124, 211, and 225 of the Family Code, which uphold the husband's decision on conjugal disagreements over property, parental authority and legal guardianship;
• article 130 of the Labor Code, which prohibits night work for women;
• article 266 (c), 333, and 334 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC), which cover marital rape and the grounds for adultery and concubinage, respectively;
• articles 16, 122, 162, and 180 of the Code of Muslim Personal Laws, which govern early and arranged marriage, polygamy, and unequal inheritance, respectively.

In the RPC, under article 266 or the Anti-Rape Law, a rapist may avoid conviction by offering to marry his victim. Under the RPC’s article 333, a married woman may already be convicted of adultery if she is caught having sexual intercourse with another man. On the other hand, article 334 says that a man can only be convicted of concubinage if it is proven that he is keeping a mistress in a conjugal dwelling; is caught having sex with another woman under "scandalous" circumstances; or cohabitating with her in any place. "These laws are trapped in a time warp, back in an archaic age when chauvinist thinking dominated society and women were considered inferior to men," Cayetano said. The review of such "antiquated laws" is mandated under section 12 of Republic Act 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women, which was enacted just last year, Cayetano said. —Kimberly Jane T. Tan/JV, GMANews.TV