Feminism and the Women's Movement in the Philippines: Struggles, Advances, and Challenges conduct and trade union advocacies to improve its coverage. In organizing strategies, the need to further gender equality within the labour movement contributed in the formation of the Manggagawang Kababaihang Mithi ay Paglaya (Women Workers Fighting for Freedom) or MAKALAYA in 1998, which started as a women workers' forum. The founding members of MAKALAYA were women trade unionists and women from community-based informal workers organizations who were by-products of the education and training program of the Gender Program(Department) of the Labor Education and Research Network(LEARN). This all­women organization was established to respond to the felt need of exploring organizing strategies that go beyond the traditional trade union way. Challenging the male-dominated trade union structures and unequal power relations within the movement, MAKALAYA opened a can of worms in the form of operational, cultural and ideological resistance from the mostly male trade union leadership. Currently, various labour centers and federations still recognize the formation of the women committee as one of the standing committees of the union. They continue to allocate leadership roles for women using the gender quota and to provide budget for gender activities. Affiliates of IndustriALL in the Philippines are pushing for a 30% quota in the leadership, which was already adopted by some unions. The Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (Center of United and Progressive Workers) or SENTRO, a labor center established in 2013, provides for 50% gender quota(as practicable) in the leadership. However, women trade unionists who were interviewed for this paper still lament the obvious gap between the written policies with what are actually being implemented. While there is a gender quota in the leadership, there is lack of program to build the capacity of women to hold leadership position, or the budget to support such a program remains inadequate. There are well-funded programs that took out women­specific components, using the argument that gender is already integrated into projects and will benefit both women and men, and therefore one or two activities are enough for an all-women gathering. In other words, gender mainstreaming in trade unionism remains a struggle within a struggle Fighting for pro-women legislation For the past 30 years, Filipino women have been struggling to have their interests championed in the legislative arena, particularly on matters concerning women's control over their bodies as well as protection from gender-based violence. The following sub-sections look back at some of the most memorable, and successful, legislative advocacies by the women's movement. Reproductive Health Rights Perhaps the most contentious and divisive legislative initiative in Philippine society in this decade is the Reproductive Health(RH) Bill, which took Congress 14 years to enact. The legislative advocacy work and debate over the RH Bill was, in the beginning, particularly vicious between the Catholic Church and a small core of reproductive health advocates, with the former on the offensive and getting most of the media attention, and the latter unable to parry the blows from a mighty opponent(Natividad, 2012: 73). The prime mover in the advocacy for the passage and full implementation of the RH Law is the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network(RHAN), a coalition of health service providers, women's organizations, people's organizations, party list groups and academic institutions who believe in the need for the adoption of a comprehensive policy on reproductive health(Reproductive Health Advocacy Network, 2008). The height of the public debate as covered by mass media was during the filing of the RH Bill in the 14th Congress (2007-2010), when the authors of the bill and key leaders of the Catholic Church debated passionately in public (Casal de Vela and Ofreneo, 2015: 9). Subsequently, more voices from the different sectors such as the media, entertainment industry, academe, business sector and non-Catholic denominations came out in support of the bill and defended the importance of providing reproductive health services for women and their families. The Catholic bishops stepped up their attacks, denouncing the bill as'anti-God' and'anti-family' as well as labeling the RH Bill as part of the so-called DEATH legislation – referring to Divorce, Euthanasia, Abortion, Total population control and Homosexuality(GMA News Online, 2008 cited in Estrada-Claudio, 2015). But as the bishops became more vociferous to the point of threatening pro-RH legislators with denial of communion and even excommunication,'even ordinary Catholics who would have kept silent, bristled at this vindictive stance'(Natividad, 2012: 82). Supporters of the RH Bill challenged the hegemony of the Catholic discourse by framing their arguments using diverse discourses such as 11