• Gng. Narda Camacho at ang Metro Manila Council of Women Balikatan Movement, salamat sa pag-organisa ng pagdiriwant natin sa sa walamng sawang pagkilos upang gunitain taon-taon ang Women’s Day.

• Maligayang Araw ng Kababaihan sa ating lahat!

• Congratulations to all of us the Philippines is number six in the World in closing the Gender Gap.

• Nangunguna lamang sa atin sa pagsarado ng gender gap ay iyong apat na bansang Scandinavia at New Zealand. Tayo lang sa Asia at isa sa anim lang sa mundo na nasarado ang gender gap kapwa sa edukasyon at kalusugan.

• Lamang pa nga tayong mga babae sa mga lalaki sa simple literacy rate at functional literacy rate.

• Lamang din ang mga babae sa pag-enroll sa eswela habang mas mababa ang drop-out rate ng mga babae.

• Lamang din ang mga babae sa pagiging honor student.

• Mas mahaba ang buhay ng mga Filipina kaysa sa mga lalaking Pilipino.

• Kaya on schedule ang Pilipinas na abutin ang UN Millennium Development Goals on sa pagtaguyod ng gender equality pagdating ng 2015.

• Laman ng Medium Term Philippine Development Plan 2004-2010 ang mga UN MDG. Kaya sabi ng development guru na si Jeffrey Sachs ito na ang pinakamagandang national development plan na nakita niya.

• Tinutupad natin ang mga importanteng batas para sa kababaihan. Nagtatabi tayo ng limang porsyento ng budget para sa gender and development.

• Noong Senador ako, nagtakda ako ng batas para sa partisipasyon ng kababaihan sa maliliit na negosyo.

• Noong Women’s Day ng 2004, pinirmahan ko ang RA9262 “An Act Defining Violence Against Women and Their Children, Providing for Protective Measures for Victims and Prescribing Penalties Therefore.”

• To help enforce this, we have increased the number of policewomen to be hired from 300 to 400 yearly, or 20 percent of the total.

• Ngunit marami pa tayong dapat gawin dito sa maternal mortality, bagamat bumaba na ito.

• Dalawa ang ating estratehiya para ibaba ang maternal mortality ratio: 1) health services to pregnant women for safe motherhood and 2) natural family planning services.

• Sa ating Early Childhood Care and Development System, isa sa mga layunin ay tiyakin na makakaabot sa sapat na serbisyong pangkalusugan at nutrisyon ang mga nanay pago pa sila manganak.

• For safe motherhood, we now encourage facility-based delivery instead of home-based delivery causes many maternal deaths.

• Pregnancy now qualifies for public health insurance, para ma-charge ng mga kababaihan sa Philhealth ang panganganak sa ospital.

• Kahit na devolved ang kalusugan sa mga pamahalaang local, tinutulungan natin silang gawing secondary hospital ang kanilang mga primary hospital. Ibig sabihin, tinutulunang natin silang magkaroon ng gynecological, obstetric and surgical services para manganak ang nanay sa ospital at hindi sa tahanan.

• Sa family planning, in 2006 50.6 percent of currently married women aged 15-49 used contraceptives. Maraming ayaw dahil Katoliko sila. Kaya tinutulak natin ang natural family planning para dumami ang nagtutupad ng responsible parenthood sa 60 percent pagdating ng 2010.

• Kinakabit natin ang breastfeeding sa natural family planning, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months.

• Today we launch HATAW (Harnessing Appropriate Technology to Assist Women) and POWER (Projects for Women Entrepreneurs). HATAW seeks technology-based solutions to community-based problems, in general, and lack of women’s economic opportunities, in particular. It will mesh local knowledge system with modern technology to create value added products and services out of available and abundant resources in the area. For example, if a women’s group would like to lessen janitor fish infestation by harvesting them for fuel, then HATAW will make their dreams come true. If some women will tap safe biotechnology practices to boost food production, HATAW will nurture their plans. New food preservation techniques can be bankrolled by HATAW. Kasama dito ang virgin coconut oil na noon pang sinabi ko kay Secretary Nina Alabastro na itaguyod para maging kasing kilala ang virgin coconut oil ng olive oil. HATAW is for bold, innovative and inventive women who will see the development through the prism of science. We have the means to bankroll their vision. The 2008 budget for DOST includes P340 million for technology innovation and commercialization.

• In addition, we currently have P50 billion in loan facilities in various lending windows for micro, small and medium enterprises. On top of this is P43 million in the 2008 budget for DSWD for microfinance. I now instruct DOST and DSWD to carve out from these funds the HATAW endowment facilities. These agencies are led by women. This underscores HATAW’s feature as a project for and by women. Secretary Cerge Remonde will be the token male in the troika. Is there a market for HATAW projects? There is. Let me cite just one with government as customer.

• This year we will buy millions of pesos worth of science laboratory equipment for our schools. Many of these can be fabricated locally using indigenous materials. If women’s cooperatives may wish to venture into these then they will be giving life to the dictum, it takes a village to teach a child. DBM’s procurement service buys detergents by the trucks yearly. They are shopping for biodegradable soaps.

• As to the POWER program, this will be for women entrepreneurs who need additional capital infusion. Those who need bridge financing. Those whose expansion plans are blocked by the lack of wherewithal. Don’t worry, girl, POWER will power up your dreams. Government will be making a wise investment because there is a flood of empirical data, from here and abroad, about the steely credit discipline of women so what well be lent will be recouped. Neither HATAW nor POWER is a handout but each is a hand up, to give a woman the right break so she can go as far and as fast as her talent can bring her.

• POWER can be used to start up Botika ng Barangays, of which we are planning to put up about 3,200 branches this year. Or it can underwrite the initial inventory requirements of a Tindahan Natin outlet, the number of which is programmed to reach 14,000 before December.

• It is an essential marker of human rights that all men and women be free and equal not just before God, but before the law and the judgment of society. Too often in poorer nations, women bear a double burden of economic immobility and political disenfranchisement. We are proud to say that political and economic parity is the cornerstone of the Philippine agenda.