Actress tapped for Comelec pro-women campaign

By MAYEN JAYMALIN

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is tapping actress Kathryn Bernardo to encourage more women to run in the coming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.

The Comelec said Bernardo will appear in an online video in April encouraging women to file their certificates of candidacy (COC).

Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, Comelec gender and development committee head, expressed optimism that Bernardo can inspire more women to run for public posts since she is influential among young people.

“They admire and follow her not only as an actor but as a role model,” Guanzon said.

The COC filing for the barangay and SK polls has been set from April 14 to April 20.

Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said that women should fully exercise their rights by filing their COCs to run for barangay or SK posts.

“If women make up half the population, then it does logically follow that they should be just as involved in governance as men are. But as things stand, they aren’t,” Jimenez noted.

Jimenez said there are more female registered voters, but there are more male elected officials.

“For gender equality, we hope there will be more women who will participate in the elections by running,” he said.

Based on Comelec data, there were 212,922 female candidates in the 2013 barangay polls as compared to the 605,776 male bets. Of the figure, 86,377 females and 246,410 males won.

In 2010, a total of 263,587 girls ran in the SK polls compared to the 261,287 boys, resulting in 134,558 girls and 137,872 boys serving as SK officials.