The year women made headlines
Does anyone think it was okay for the President to kiss a woman in the middle of a speech? Or for him to tell soldiers to shoot rebel “amazonas” in the vagina? Were you not entertained? Didn’t you get the joke?
It took the feminist group called #BabaeAko, formed by journalists, artists and other women leaders, to stand up and educate us that the presidency is neither for entertainment nor for the enforcement of misogyny or tyranny, things that the President has beset us much of this year. Martial Law extensions and criminalizing dissent has seen some resistance, with the women coming out to balance the force.
One of Babae Ako’s organizers, Inday Espina-Varona, has been awarded as an outstanding journalist by the Reporters Without Borders for her courage in reporting on human rights. The two women supported by the Babae Ako campaign, former Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno and Rappler editor-in-chief Maria Ressa, continue to stand their ground for truth and the common good, notwithstanding the online attacks to damage their credibility.
And Ressa got voted as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.
There is irony, though, in that there are women who are riding on the popularity of the brutish administration.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was only remembered for being an Internet meme (with that neck brace). But on Duterte’s third State of the Nation Address, she made everyone remember her for stealing the House leadership. As the fourth highest leader of this country, she brought back the same controversies: power grab, pork, patronage politics. Even Duterte’s federalism vision was reworked in her vision of unlimited terms for elective government officials. She is now standing tall, and she is not sorry.
The Marcoses would be remembered again for being unrepentant. Former First Lady Imelda Marcos was convicted of graft and given a jail term of 70 years, yet she was able to post bail. How this affects the senatorial bid of Imee Marcos will be seen in May 2019, but this early on the public has scorned her online campaigns.
Mocha Uson thought her resignation as communications undersecretary would bring her sympathy and support to carry on her advocacy for “Tatay Digong” and also for her party-list candidacy. Perhaps blinded by bots and fake trolls, her resignation was considered more of a relief by a public fed up with her lack of research, decency and respect.
Sara Duterte is surely her father’s daughter, equally lethal online with her barbs against her father’s critics. Despite leading in senatorial surveys, she remains in the local scene consolidating her power by forming the regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago.
The resistance is also spread in movies and memes. The biographical film “Liway” brought to light the darkness of Martial Law. The late senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago continues to jibe politicos in memes.
Surely, these forces will continue to clash in 2019. How much can those aligned with the presidency hold? Do we still need to be entertained or to be enlightened? The women in the resistance speak to us--of change and hope, of truth and power.--from SunStar Davao