Women empowerment

‘Change the face of society’

CEBU - VICE President Leni Robredo urged members of the Filipina Women's Network (FWN), an international non-profit organization, to spread women empowerment to change the face of the society.

"We are not here to rule the world. We are about creating the world where despots and heroes are no longer needed, so that each one of us can be heroes," she told FWN members and guests during the 13th Filipina Leadership Global Summit held in Cebu Tuesday, August 23.

Robredo said the Filipina of today is "more powerful, more accomplished, more emphatic and more socially aware than ever before," but stressed that the value of Filipina women does not depend on recognition.

"Our value is innate in our ability to give ourselves to those who need our life, our laughter..." said Robredo, who was one of the summit's keynote speakers.

She said women empowerment is one of the five areas that the Office of the Vice President has vowed to prioritize. The other four areas that her office plans to zero in are hunger and food security, rural development, education, and public health.

She said one strategy her office is implementing is economic empowerment, or giving women power over their ability to earn a living.

Robredo admitted that the Vice President's office has very little funds, "but in this work, we have discovered that it is not the money per se that can transform society. It is transparency, trust and governance."

"It is the ability to convene and inspire. It is the mandate to step back, look at the gaps and figure out how to maximize our joint resources to fill up those gaps. It is clarity of vision and focus," she stressed.

The Vice President vowed to have her hands full in the next six years, but appealed for help, stressing: "We will only be successful if the desire for empowerment swells from the ground, supported by each woman, man and child in this country."

Robredo, aside from being FWN's keynote speaker Tuesday, also received the "Most Influential Filipina Woman of the World Award" under the "Nicole Award Category."

The “Nicole” award "honors Filipina women whose words, actions, and activism inspire others to act and revolutionize society’s way of understanding traditional beliefs and customs, thus leaving behind a Filipino global imprint," said FWN in its website.