THE PHILIPPINE justice system must improve in terms of access and provisions specific to women’s needs, considering the physical, social, and economic vulnerabilities they face, according to the United Nations Women.

“It is important for society as a whole to understand and address women’s vulnerability to violence and ensure their economic and social empowerment,”

National Project UN Women’s Access to Justice Programme Analyst Jona Marie Ang said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Access to justice means that women and girls are able to easily obtain justice, health, and social services, and live a life free from violence,” she said.

Ms. Ang also noted that facilities for women suspects and offenders “are primarily built for men, so their distinct needs — such as sexual and reproductive health services — tend to be overlooked.”

The UN Women Philippines has launched the Access to Justice Programme (A2J) and Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) Programme to advocate for the creation of an environment that enables women to seek and access justice without fear of victim blaming, re-traumatization, and retaliation.

“Studies have shown that poverty not only makes women more vulnerable to violence but also drives them to engage in illegal activities,” Ms. Ang said.

“Many women are detained for petty offenses and have also been found to have previously experienced different forms of abuse, but they face penalties that are disproportionate to their crime and background.”

BAIL
Meanwhile, a support group for political prisoners on Tuesday urged a Manila trial court to reduce the bail set for three detained activists, including one whose infant daughter died in a hospital while she was in jail.

“The decision of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 47 allowing detained activists to post bail is bittersweet because it is long overdue, but the amount attached to their freedom is excessive that it becomes another injustice,” Fides M. Lim, convenor for Kapatid, said in a statement.

Reina Mae Nasino and Alma Moran were ordered to pay a total of P420,000 while Ram Carlo Bautista was ordered to pay P570,000, all for charges on illegal possession of firearms.

The court on Monday granted the petition of the three activists to post bail, citing the government prosecutors’ failure to prove their guilt for the crimes. They were arrested in 2019.

Ms. Lim said the decision showed that many political prisoners were detained on trumped-up charges.

In August, the Court of Appeals voided search warrants against the three activists due to inconsistencies in the forms.

The Manila court rejected Ms. Nasino’s plea in 2020 to take care of her daughter at the hospital or prison nursery until she turned a year old. She was given three days to attend her daughter’s wake and burial. — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan and John Victor D. Ordoñez

A QUEZON CITY regional trial court has convicted a journalist from Baguio City for cyber-libel over a Facebook post he made about a former agriculture secretary in 2017.

In a 19-page decision made public on Tuesday, the Quezon City Branch 93 ruled that Franklin Cimatu made defamatory comments against former Department of Agriculture secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol in the social media post.

“A cursory reading of the Facebook post would show the intention of the writer, herein accused Cimatu, to injure the reputation, credit and virtue of Piñol, who, at the time the Facebook post was published, was Secretary of Agriculture,” Presiding Judge Evangeline Cabochan-Santos said in the ruling.

The court noted that Mr. Cimatu, a community journalist and Rappler, Inc. contributor, made it appear in the post that the ex-agriculture chief got rich during the bird flu outbreak in 2017, gaining P21 million.

He was sentenced to up to five years, five months and 11 days in prison along with a fine of P300,000 for moral damages.

The journalist argued the post was only meant to be seen by his personal Facebook friends.

The trial court disagreed, citing that the post used Facebook’s “public” setting.

“We hope to craft the appeal before the year ends and will fight it out,” Mr. Cimatu, also an award-winning poet, told BusinessWorld in a Facebook Messenger chat.

“As a journalist, I have always been for the decriminalization of libel especially when it is used to weaponize” he added.

Mr. Piñol did not immediately reply to a Facebook Messenger chat seeking comment.

Senator Ana Theresia “Risa” N. Hontiveros-Baraquel, who filed a bill last week seeking to decriminalize libel, said existing laws “have been weaponized to stifle very basic fundamental rights.”

“These laws have been used to constantly attack many of our freedoms, but particularly the freedom of the press. We need to decriminalize libel if we are to truly defend press freedom,” she said in a statement.

If passed, Senate Bill 1593 or the Decriminalization of Libel Act will amend the Revised Penal Code and the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

“It is the job of reporters to share information for the public’s knowledge,” the senator said. “We need the press to vet information and continue to be the safekeepers of facts.”

In a separate statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemned the court decision saying it violated freedom of expression and press freedom.

“With due respect to the local court’s decision, NUJP maintains that the right to free expression and press freedom is paramount especially when exercised in relation to public officials,” the group said.

“Cimatu’s case is proof how government officials use libel as a weapon to harass and intimidate journalists.”

Last month, the Philippines accepted 200 recommendations from the United Nations Human Rights Council, including protecting journalists.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla has said the government does not sanction attacks, harassment or intimidation of journalists.

The Philippines was the seventh worst country in the world where journalist killers get away with murder, according to a report by New York-based watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published last month.

The country slipped two notches in the World Press Freedom Index released by the global watchdog, ranking 138^th among 180 countries last year.

The Council for People’s development has said impunity in the Philippines impedes freedom of expression and the people’s right to access reliable information. — John Victor D. Ordoñez and Alyssa Nicole O. Tan