C. E-Gender Ombud
The Gender Based Violence (GBV) Portal is the product of
the collaboration of the CHR’s Gender Equality and Women's
Human Rights Center (GEWHRC) and the UNFPA. Compared to
the Human Rights E-Lawyering Service (HRELS) which is a
network that addresses general HRVs, the E-Report Mo Sa
Gender Ombud (http://www.gbvcovid.report/) was launched as
an online portal meant to monitor and respond to incidents of gender-based violence
occurring during the lockdown. This effort is in line with CHR’s role as the country’s Gender
Ombud and is a direct response to the growing reports of violence against women, children,
and members of the LGBTQI community. A total of 75 GBV cases was recorded for 2021.
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Human Rights Prevention Services
As mandated in Article XIII of the Philippine Constitution, the CHR shall “Exercise
visiting powers over jails, prisons, or detention facilities” (Section 18, Paragraph 4). This
means that the CHR shall conduct regular visits to jails/prisons, and other detention facilities
in order to assess the conditions of the facilities. As a human rights institution, the CHRP shall
see to it that the basic rights of the people detained are respected. 2.1.2 Paragraph 7 of the
same section states that CHR shall “Monitor the Philippine Government’s compliance with
international treaty obligations on human rights”. In view of the above, the CHR officially
integrated the Prevention Cluster/Services to its Strategic Plan in 2020. Prevention Services
collectively refers to the Jail Visitations (JV) and Assistance to Persons Deprived of Liberty
(PDL). As with a number of the CHR's operations during the pandemic, the face-to-face JVs
and assistance provision were supplemented through electronic channels and systems such as
phone calls, emails, telecommunications, social media messaging applications, and the like.
I. Number of Jail Visitations
From January to December 2021, the CHR was able to conduct 979 Jail Visitations.
The conduct and delivery of the jail visitations across the target prison facilities varied from
3.58% to 8.17% overall, except Regional Office I – in La Union, which constitutes at least a
quarter (258, 26.35%) of the total figure.
Office/
Region
NCR
CAR
I
II
III
IVA
IVB
V
Table 12
Number of
Office/
Jail Visits
Region
47
VI
55
VII
258
VIII
48
IX
49
X
46
XI
36
XII
80
CARAGA
979 Total Visits
Number of
Jail Visits
37
68
35
57
35
37
38
53
17