GAD plans move beyond compliance-driven seminars and orientations toward impact-oriented programming that reflects women’s lived experiences of care burdens, reproductive autonomy and safety, among others. Enforcement mechanisms must penalize misattribution of GAD funds. Strengthen Transparency and Prioritize Freedom of Information To address fiscal opacity which isolates spending activity from impact, the priority passage of a robust Freedom of Information Law that ensures proactive disclosure of government transactions, budgets and audit results is urgent. This law must include mandatory disaggregated reporting by sector, ensuring visibility of allocations for women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ people. Freedom from Coercion Legislation strengthening protections against coercion in governance processes must be introduced—whether in the form of intimidation or gendered corruption such as the demand for sexual favors. Gendered amendments to the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act(RA 3019) need to be made to address coercive practices beyond financial or material bribery. Such coercive practices should be treated as grave violations that warrant stronger penalties and accessible and inclusive complaint mechanisms. Institutionalize Participatory Agenda Setting Community-based agenda-setting mechanisms, including mini-publics and citizen assemblies, must be mandated as required stages in municipal and provincial planning cycles. These mechanisms must be gender-balanced and inclusive, with quotas for women, youth, persons with disabilities and Indigenous representatives. Clarify Responsibilities under the Devolution Agenda Legislation must address the unfinished devolution agenda, which has resulted in fragmented authority, redundant projects and accountability gaps(Juco et al., 2024). Congress should: → Realign functional assignments between national agencies and LGUs to reduce overlap. → Require provinces to act as inter-LGU coordinators and provide incentives for collaboration. → Mandate the creation of sectoral expenditure accounts across all LGUs, with crediting requirements to prevent cross-charging and ensure resources reach intended beneficiaries. → Link devolution reforms with gender justice by foregrounding participatory mechanisms to ensure women, Indigenous Peoples and other vulnerable groups define priorities in devolved functions. Mandate Intersectional Gender Data Collection Congress must legislate mandatory intersectional disaggregation of gender data across all national and local agencies. This requires the following: → Expanding existing GAD reporting to cover age, indigeneity, disability and sexuality, alongside gender. → Requiring intersectional reporting in the Magna Carta of Women and related laws, ensuring that invisibility in official statistics does not perpetuate invisibility in governance. → Establishing penalties for agencies and LGUs that submit incomplete or non-disaggregated data in order to prevent the routine erasure of marginalized groups. 8.3. Executive Recommendations Implement Devolution Reforms in Practice The executive must operationalize legislative reforms on devolution by: → Establishing clear coordination channels between national agencies and LGUs. → Supporting provinces as convenors of inter-LGU initiatives, especially on issues that transcend municipal boundaries (e.g., watershed management, disaster response). Culturally Responsive Evaluation The executive needs to adopt culturally responsive evaluation frameworks that acknowledge prevailing folk norms while actively countering patriarchal practices. Through assessments of cultural and behavioral change, governance can be evaluated by its capacity to transform lived realities. Programs should address culture through the following: → Culturally responsive implementation frameworks that identify and engage with prevailing values and practices, while actively creating counter-narratives that affirm women’s rights. → Intersectional participatory monitoring mechanisms to capture how communal norms differently affect women across class, age, sexuality, disability and indigeneity. Claiming Power and Reshaping Governance: A Feminist Framework for the Philippines 25