Feminism and the Women's Movement in the Philippines: Struggles, Advances, and Challenges Councilor Charisse Abalos filed her version of the ordinance in 2016 but has not been signed into an ordinance yet(Charisse Abalos, 2016). Other legislative efforts are being pushed by women legislators that should provide adequate protection and redress for LGBT Filipinos like Batangas District 6 Representative Vilma Santos' House Bill Number 2952. The bill seeks to expand the Women and Children's Desk on police stations nationwide, and accommodate cases and complaints by LGBT victims of crimes(Dalangin­Fernandez, 2016). Seventeen years after the bill was first filed, things appear to be looking up for the ADB especially with election of Bataan District 1 Representative Geraldine Roman, who joined the roster of ADB defenders(Cepeda, 2016). With the leadership of women champions like Dinagat Island Representative Arlene“Kaka” Bag-ao in the House of Representatives and Senator Risa Hontiveros in the Senate, the ADB has been hitting milestones in the 17th Congress. As seen in the foregoing, acknowledgment by the women's movement of the LBT men and women's issues as well as willingness to champion the latter happened gradually. Nevertheless, the movement has significantly progressed in terms of accepting how women from different contexts and circumstances struggle differently but are united in the cause of empowering women and emancipating them from systemic oppression and inequality. Gains of the Women's Movement The Philippine NGO Report on Beijing+20(Pineda­Ofreneo and Illo, 2015) commended the significant gains on women's empowerment in the last ten years. The report mentioned that'women's studies in higher education have been recognized and institutionalized in many academic institutions, and have been instrumental in providing a pool of well-equipped gender advocates who can influence and implement gender-related policies and programs of local government units and national government agencies'(Pineda& Illo, 2015: 6). Such formal recognition and institutionalization was further strengthened through the Commission on Higher Education(CHED)'s issuance of CHED Memorandum Order(CMO) No. 01, 2015, which provides for the nationwide mainstreaming of gender in all higher education institutions, private and public. With the CMO, the Philippines is the only country in the world or the first to undertake and promulgate gender mainstreaming in the academe(Manansan, 2015). 13 The report also highlighted the participation of grassroots women's organizations in government's flagship program, the Bottom-Up or Grassroots Participatory Budgeting, which enabled these groups to access support from and collaborate with LGUs on projects for women. Moreover, the report recognized the'primacy of organizing, especially grassroot women' as an important component of'women's empowerment and movement building.' What was new and significant, according to the report, was that organizations focusing on human rights, VAW, health, environment and disasters had formed community-based watch groups and other modalities to address increasing incidence of abuse in the context of calamities(Pineda& Illo, 2015: 6) Also, the use of social media was seen as an opportunity to'strengthen and speed up advocacies.'(Ibid.) The various efforts of women's organizations working on different issues and concerns also led to the passage of the following laws during the period: Table 3: Legislative Victories, July 1992 to present Year Republic Act(RA) Number Description 1993 7655 Increases the minimum wage for domestic workers 1994 7688 An Act giving representation to women in the Social Security Commission 13 The chairperson of CHED at the time was Dr. Patricia Licuanan, who had chaired the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 1994-1995 and was one of the conveners of the Fourth World Conference on Women(Beijing 1995). 16