Ermelita Valdeavilla

With the aim of strengthening the internal procedures and affairs of the Philippine Commission on Women, we kicked off this year's team-building sessions, starting with the Corporate Affairs and Information Resource Management Division.

This isn't your conventional team building filled just with outings and extracurricular activities. Instead, our program is purposefully designed to tackle office policies and procedures, aiming to strengthen our institutional capacity and build a more cohesive, future-ready workforce.

The GAD Budget taught the government how to plan with gender equality in mind. Gender-responsive procurement now challenges us to spend with gender transformative justice in our hearts.

It was an honor to speak at the GPPB-TSO Gender Responsive Activation today. Public procurement is one of the state's most powerful economic tools. Yet, a gender-blind system is not neutral—it acts as an enabler of cumulative inequities for our women entrepreneurs who face barriers from lack of capital to disproportionate caregiving burdens.

Gender-responsive procurement (GRP) under Section 75 of RA 12009 is not a diversity quota or corporate social responsibility. It is the strategic, legally-grounded use of the government’s purchasing power to drive genuine social inclusion.

Through our partnership with the GPPB, the World Bank, and fellow government champions, the Philippine Commission on Women is committed to moving gender mainstreaming out of the policy documents and straight into market contracts.

Let us fearlessly use our public spending in defense of gender justice.