By Chito Chavez Quezon City Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte has strongly pursued the use of the city’s Gender and Development (GAD) budget to put up additional women and children’s help desks in the communities. A strong advocate of gender equality, Belmonte underscored the need to provide adequate protection to women against all forms of crimes and abuses. Quezon City Vice-Mayor Joy Belmonte. (Mark Balmores/MANILA BULLETIN) “There is an issue that maybe we can use the GAD budget for these things, or gamitin din tulad ng, halimbawa, pagbibigay ng puhunan para sa mga babaeng gustong magkaroon ng trabaho (use it also for example providing capital for women who want to work),” Belmonte said. Citing a recent study conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), Belmonte said women are most vulnerable to sexual harassment, especially in public places. In Quezon City, Metro Manila’s biggest city with a population of over three million, three in every five women were sexually harassed at least once in their lifetime based on the same SWS report, the vice mayor added, “With more women and ch ildren’s protection desks in every barangay, in addition to those at the police stations, we can address the vulnerabilities of women,” Belmonte explained in justifying the effective utilization of GAD budget. The purpose of the local government units’ GAD budget, Belmonte pointed out, is to provide more opportunities for women’s empowerment and contribute to the reduction and eradication of all forms of violence against women. Under the GAD budget policy, all government offices, LGUs and state universities and colleges are enjoined to utilize at least five percent of their budget for programs that promote gender equality. Quezon City, for 2018, has an annual budget of P19 billion, five percent of which translates to roughly P950 million, according to Belmonte. Under Belmonte’s leadership, the city council in 2016 passed the city’s Amended Gender and Development Code, making Quezon City the first local government in the country to penalize street-level harassment of women. The ordinance, also known as the anti-catcalling ordinance, imposes a fine and jail term for acts such as catcalls and wolf whistles that are considered as sexual harassment of women in public spaces. Since its introduction, two local policemen have been dismissed by Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Guillermo Eleazar for catcalling, according to Belmonte.