Published on: December 07, 2023
By Lean Twinkle Bolongon
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COTABATO CITY (PIA) — The government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), through the Bangsamoro Women Commission (BWC), has renewed its commitment to accelerate actions to end the issue of child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) in the Bangsamoro region.
BWC chairperson Bainon Karon, during her recent 5th state of the Bangsamoro Women’s Address, underscored that the BARMM government will invest in programs and projects that will prevent violence against women and girls and formulate strategies to stop CEFM from occurring.
“We renew and accelerate our actions to address this pervasive issue by putting women and girls at the center and engaging men and boys at the same time,” Karon said.
She shared that there are still cases of early child and forced marriage in the country, including in the Bangsamoro region.
According to the National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) in 2022, roughly 286,000, or 5.6%, of girls 15 to 19 years old are currently married or in union.
Based on the latest data from BWC, the Bangsamoro region has recorded a total of 20 percent of women who have begun cohabitating before the age of 18.
“A stronger collaboration is needed to further advance the advocacy on addressing CEFM; a mere passage of a law is insufficient; we must prevent CEFM from happening and provide appropriate services to those married adolescents,” Karon stressed.
The BWC has also collaborated with the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government (MILG) and the Police Regional Office (PRO-BARMM) in establishing a total of 127 women’s and children’s protection desks in different areas of the region.
Meanwhile, BARMM chief minister Ahod Balawag Ebrahim, in a video message, emphasized the importance of equal opportunity for every woman in the region as one of the paths for progress.
“We will continue our task to safeguard their rights and empower them to be partners of this government on its journey towards an empowered and progressive Bangsamoro,” he said.
In BARMM, according to the Cooperative and Social Enterprise Authority (CSEA), a total of 149 women cooperatives were provided with various interventions, such as skills training and financial assistance, from different BARMM ministries and offices.
Further, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) parliament is now composed of 16 women parliament members who are all champions of women empowerment. The BARMM government is also hopeful that in 2025 and beyond, there will be an equitable number of female parliamentarians.
With all these developments, the BARMM government believes that a coordinated multi-sectoral response will make a huge difference in preventing all forms of gender-based discrimination and violence in the region.
