EPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Article XIII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution is entitled Social Justice and Human Rights. Section 1 states: “The Congress shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures that protect and enhance the right of all the people to human dignity, reduce social, economic, and political inequalities, and remove cultural inequities by equitably diffusing wealth and political power for the common good.”
The rest of the chapter emphasizes:
full protection to labor;
undertaking an agrarian reform program founded on the right of farmers and regular farmworkers who are landless and for other farmworkers to receive a just share of the fruits of the land they till;
a continuing program of urban land reform and housing which will make available at affordable cost, decent housing and basic services to underprivileged and homeless citizens in urban centers and resettlement areas. It shall also promote adequate employment opportunities to such citizens;
protection for working women by providing safe and healthful working conditions;
upholding the rights of people’s organization to effective and reasonable participation at all levels of social, political, and economic decision-making;
the creation of the Commission on Human Rights which will provide appropriate legal measures for the protection of human rights of all persons within the Philippines, as well as Filipinos residing abroad.
Culture and Heritage
The National Cultural Heritage Act or Republic Act No. 10066 was signed into law in 2009. The said law provided measures to protect historic buildings that are more than fifty years old.
There is also Republic Act 8371 also know as "The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997." The said law recognizes, protects and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities/indigenous people. The said law defines indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples as referring “to a group of people or homogenous societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by other, who have continuously lived as organized community on communally bounded and defined territory, and who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed customs, tradition and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and culture, became historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos. ICCs/IPs shall likewise include peoples who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, at the time of conquest or colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures, or the establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside their ancestral domains.”
International Treaties
The Philippines is signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The Philippines is also a signatory to International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Convention against Discrimination in Education, Protocol to the Convention against Discrimination in Education, Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons ---all of which seek to promote equality among people.
The Philippines is also committed to the advancement and promotion of women’s rights. The country is signatory to Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the Convention on the Political Rights of Women.
Protection to labor is emphasized in signing the following conventions: International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, Domestic Workers Convention, Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), Nursing Personnel Convention, Protection of Wages Convention.
The Philippines is also signatory to: The Philippines Convention on the Rights of the Child, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
In summary, the Philippines is signatory to international treaties promoting cultural heritage, equality, full protection to labour, upholding the rights of the child and the dignity of the human being.