FOR this year’s Women’s Month, House Deputy Speaker Camille Villar launched the “Pasa-Tulong” initiative to encourage residents of Las Piñas City to pass acts of kindness to someone else and spark the spirit of compassion and generosity.
The “Pasa-Tulong” program is Rep. Camille Villar’s adaptation of the popular movie, “Pay it Forward,” which introduced the concept that when someone does something good to you, you don’t pay it back but instead pass it on the help to another person.
The Las Piñas lawmaker picked Nanay Librada “Libreng” C. Romero, a street sweeper member-volunteer of the “Kaagapay sa Kalinisan at Kagandahan ng Las Pinas” group, as one of her beneficiaries and gave her a P15,000 capital to open a small sari-sari store, which she had long wanted to own.
To pay forward Rep. Camille Villar’s good deed, Nanay Libreng shared part of her earnings from the sari-sari store to her daughter-in-law Elena, who opened her own softdrinks retail business to boost her family’s income. Nanay Libreng also let Elena use a space in her property as storage area for her bottled beverages.
Elena passed on her good fortune to her sister-in-law Mary Grace, who has four children and whose husband works as a truck driver at the CENRO Las Piñas office. Mary Grace used the financial assistance from Elena to start her retail home-made dishwashing soap business.
In turn, Mary Grace helped her daughter Ricka to jumpstart her own mini donut business.
The Filipina Warrior
Rep. Camille Villar does not only support other women through special assistance programs, but also fights for them.
In 2021 during the 18th Congress, she sought an investigation into the surge in the cases of gender-based violence during the pandemic and called for immediate measures to protect women and children.
House Resolution 1581 cited research materials suggesting that harassment and sexual violence of women and children increase during and after any crisis or disaster. Experts have likewise described the situation as a pandemic within a pandemic, as victims are trapped at home during lockdowns.
“We need to tackle this issue as this seems to be neglected, and victims are left with their abusers at home. We also need to determine the possible and immediate measures to mitigate the effects of violence and strengthen support services for the victims,” Villar said in HRN 1581.
The Philippine Commission on Women has recorded 13,923 cases of violence against women and children from the start of the COVID-19 lockdown on March 15, 2020, up to November 30, 2020. Of the reported cases, 4,747 were cases of abuse against children.
Rep. Camille Villar said the low number of victims who come forward to report instances of abuse shows the weakness in the enforcement of existing laws protecting women and children, among them Republic Act No. 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004 which seeks to address all forms of abuse and violence against women and children, RA 7877 or the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995, and RA 11313 or the Safe Spaces Act.
Businesswoman for other businesswomen
Earlier this year, Camille Villar filed House Bill No. 9810, proposing the enactment of the Women’s Business Enterprise Act to promote the interest of and enhance the entrepreneurial skills of Filipino women.
The proposed legislative measure also seeks to facilitate, preserve, and strengthen women’s business enterprises and ensure their full participation in the free enterprise system.
The measure defines a women-owned business as a business that is at least 51 percent owned by a woman or women who also control and operate it.
On the other hand, a women’s business enterprise means any women-owned business or business or the efforts of a woman or women to establish, maintain, or develop such a business or business.
“We should all work together to ensure that Filipino women are extended the same opportunities to contribute to nation-building similar to those extended to men. This is enshrined in our Constitution, and the government must fulfill this mandate,” the Deputy Speaker from Las Piñas City said.
With all these initiatives and authored house bills, Rep. Camille Villar is truly celebrating women by helping them become stronger, empowered, with sustainable lives.
