FROM GABRIELA PHILIPPINES
March 8, International Women's Day

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Women Reveal the Real Issues

Around 10,000 women commemorating the 88th International Women’s Day marched in key cities nationwide to reveal issues crucial to Filipino women today, far from the issues sold by presidential candidates projecting to be pro-women.

‘Today, Filipino women continue to struggle against the perennial and escalating crisis gripping the nation brought about by imperialist globalization subserviently executed by the Ramos government,’ said GABRIELA Secretary General Liza Maza to around 3,000 people gathered at the Mendiola Bridge. The rallyists, composed of peasant women, workers, urban poor, youth, professionals, and advocates from Metro Manila and nearby provinces, earlier converged at the Welcome Rotonda.

Maza furthered that ‘the whip of economic crisis hits hardest on women today with a government who is adamant in further opening up the Philippines to global competition but only succeeds in selling out the country’s natural and human resources, particularly the women.’

The first weeks of January alone saw the retrenchment of 200,000 agricultural workers, mostly women, while DOLE reports that the first quarter of 1998 registered some 24,000 laid-off factory workers, making prostitution and going abroad - as domestic helpers and entertainers - a forced option for women. Filipino women suffer not only from abuse and exploitation as domestic helpers and entertainers in foreign countries, she said, but are also vulnerable to violence inherent in prostitution, to which many have resorted because of lack of employment, low wages and harsh labor conditions/policies, high prices of basic commodities, and dislocation due to massive land and crop conversions in the countryside. Hence, women from all sectors become more vulnerable to prostitution because of extreme poverty, Maza noted.

A cultural presentation, staged by Sining Lila, depicted the plight of the Filipino woman under US-Ramos sponsored policies on foreign investment and capital; on liberalization, privatization and deregulation; labor flexibility and export, and on tourism.

GABRIELA, thus, insists on unveiling the real women’s agenda rather than riding on the election fever to rally behind a certain candidate, although it would certainly rally against some (presidential) candidates.

It was on this vein that the alliance released its six-point Women’s criteria: respects and promotes Women’s rights, upholds children’s rights, no track record of Human Rights violations, supportive of the P100 wage increase, stands for genuine agrarian reform, and, stands against all unequal economic treaties that undermine Philippine (economic) sovereignty and patrimony.

Thus, when asked by media on endorsing a political candidate, GABRIELA chairperson Sr. Mary John Mananzan explained that ‘the criteria is meant to reveal the real issues confronting us Filipino women, which are very far from what even the women candidates say.’ Maza added by saying that the fact that a candidate is a woman does not automatically ensure that she will give voice and take action on these issues.

Similar march rallies were also held in cities of Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and Tagbilaran. In the USA, the GABRIELA Network in New York and Los Angeles held separate forums on women’s issues, while GABRIELA San Francisco held a torchlight march and ritual with the theme ‘Celebrating women’s courage, resistance and strength.’ The GABRIELA Network in Australia and Japan also held march rallies, raising particularly women’s struggles in the Philippines.

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GABRIELA Staged Protest Picket Against SOFA

Women from the militant women’s group GABRIELA staged a protest picket against the Status of Forces Agreement this morning in front of the US Embassy along Roxas Blvd. The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) was signed by Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Siazon last Monday as endorsed by President Fidel V. Ramos.

‘We strongly condemn the Ramos government for selling off the people’s sovereignty by signing the Status of Forces Agreement and consequently making our women and children vulnerable to abuse and exploitation,’ said Liza Maza, secretary general of GABRIELA.

‘There is no denying that the presence of foreign military intervention almost always result to grave abuse and exploitation of women and children, as showcased by Angeles and Olongapo,’ said Maza. ‘With 22 more ports being opened for US military access and in the face of grave economic crisis, the number of prostituted women may very well reach a million before the next millenium,’ Maza added.

The women’s group cited the massive growth of sex industry in areas where two of the largest US military bases were located. During the presence of US military bases, there were 330 bars, clubs, massage parlors and entertainment joints in Magsaysay Ave. alone in Olongapo. And the number of ‘entertainers’ in Olongapo reached 32,000.

The group also stressed that the Immunity Clause on the SOFA virtually gives US military personnel ‘diplomatic license to abuse women and children.’ According to Fr. Shay Cullen of PREDA Foundation, a social-service organization based in Olongapo, fifteen cases of sexual abuse of children between ages 11 to 16 were filed from 1981 to 1988. All these were against US servicemen and all were dismissed. ‘There is just no stopping the Ramos government when it comes to kowtowing to the demands of its US imperialist bosses.’