This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 5, March 6-12, 2005
BY GABRIELA
Posted by Bulatlat Today is the 10th
Anniversary of the Beijing Platform of Action for Women. On this day,
governments will again bask in self-glorification while reporting their
so-called successes in the implementation of the Beijing Platform of Action. It
is but fitting to remind them that such successes are made possible mainly
through the efforts of women’s organizations that genuinely represent the
interests of marginalized women. In the Philippines,
GABRIELA has been in the forefront of the women’s movement for genuine
emancipation of women and society. In these 10 years, it has taken to the
streets and mounted campaigns to fight for women’s rights and welfare. It has
organized local women and mobilized them to achieve victories in their
struggles. And just recently, it has succeeded in bringing the voice of women in
the Philippine Congress through a women’s political party bearing its name.
Sadly, the Macapagal-Arroyo
government can only ride on the efforts of women’s NGOs and people’s
organizations like GABRIELA because ten years after the Beijing Conference on
Women in 1995, Filipino women remain marginalized and “disempowered” by
poverty. Doomed from the start because of its myopic view on the problems of
women, the Beijing Platform of Action has failed on its agenda for women’s
empowerment. In these 10 years, the
Philippines had gone through three leaderships, one of which is a direct result
of another People Power upheaval, but the situation of women has improved very
little. This is because each government after Beijing had miserably plunged its
people into further crisis due to its neglect of basic social services and its
priority on debt-service payments. Last year, the government
of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the country’s second woman leader,
declared a fiscal crisis. With unchecked corruption and financial mismanagement
of her government, this did not become a surprise for millions of families who
have long borne the brunt of government bankruptcy.
Way below decent life Today, six out of 10
Filipino families live in a hand-to-mouth existence, meaning their daily income
is way below the cost of living. This means families not eating three meals a
day. Results from a survey from July to September last year indicate that about
12 million Filipinos (15 percent of the population) experienced hunger at least
once during the period of the survey. Women, especially mothers, are the ones
who usually give up their own share of meals in favor of their husband and
children, even if the daily diet of the family consists only of noodles and
other poor man’s alternative foods. Unfortunately, the
government’s solution to the economic crisis, upon the recommendation of the IMF-WB,
is to pass on more burdens to the people through taxes that do not redound to
their benefit. In the Beijing document,
women’s reproductive health was one of the important highlights in the agenda
for empowerment. Sadly, Filipino mothers continue to suffer from lack of
defined reproductive health program, which includes sex education and family
planning. Babies given birth by young mothers (15 – 21 years old) account for
30 percent of the 1.8 million babies born every year. In addition, everyday,
there are 10 mothers (or 3,650 annually) who die of complications in pregnancy
and childbirth. Maternal mortality remains at a relatively high 240 out of
100,000 live births. This is not at all surprising considering that the health
budget allotted for every Filipino is a meager P3.20 (less than U.S.$0.6) a day. Another basic need,
housing, remains to be one of the most neglected social services. There are
1.48 million informal settlers in the country. This number would inevitably
increase with the planned demolition of urban and rural poor communities to give
way to so-called development projects such as railway systems, road expansions,
etc. As mainstays of their household, women will particularly bear the burden
of looking for ways and means to defend their homes and eventually settle the
family should demolition becomes inevitable.
More female dropouts As for education, more
women than men have enrolled, but the rate of female dropouts has also
increased. The main reasons are mostly economic especially with the high cost
of education even in public schools and state universities. In a feudal and patriarchal
society like the Philippines,
men are given priority over women in terms of completing education since women
are usually relegated to the homes as child-bearers and nurturers. According to
the 1998 National Demographic and Health survey, 7 percent of teenage Filipino
women have begun child bearing while 38 percent of women age 20-24 have already
borne a child. Out of 10 pregnancies, four were unwanted at the time.
For ten years, the
government, its organizations and pseudo-NGOs have claimed triumphs in
empowering Filipino women. But for GABRIELA, the Philippine government has
further marginalized women by its continuing subservience to imperialist
dictates that have plundered our resources and caused more burdens to women.
Globalization, for
instance, has rendered more women vulnerable to economic exploitation. The
liberalization of trade has become a great threat to our food security. The
deregulation of basic industries such as the oil industry has caused an unabated
rise in prices of gasoline and petroleum products and consequently of transport
fares and prices of prime commodities. The privatization of power and water
industries has pushed electric and water bills of ordinary households to
unaffordable levels. In other words, globalization has failed to result in
economic development and instead contributed to further pushing the populace
into starvation. The Filipino people have
long resisted globalization and imperialist plunder, whether in the streets or
in the countryside. However, the resistance is now the target of the so-called
anti-terrorism campaign of the government that serves to punish not the real
terrorists but those who disagree with the government’s anti-people policies.
Many women had been killed, many others jailed. More were terrorized into
silence but only up to a certain point. But the women of GABRIELA
choose to continue with their struggle. We believe that as long as imperialists
continue to run the lives of poor nations like the Philippines, women shall
never be free from the bondage of oppression and exploitation. Women will
continue to be seen as objects and commodities that can be manipulated. The
only way for women to break the chain is to unite and change the whole
oppressive system into one that respects women and human rights and upholds
economic and political sovereignty. Where the Beijing Platform of Action
failed, the progressive women’s movement will continue to strive for the genuine
emancipation of women and the liberation of society as well. Posted by
Bulatlat
© 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Beijing
Platform of Action
Ten Years After: More
Burdens than Triumphs
As long as
imperialists continue to run the lives of poor nations like the Philippines,
women shall never be free from the bondage of oppression and exploitation. The
only way for women to break the chain is to unite and change the whole
oppressive system into one that respects women and human rights and upholds
economic and political sovereignty.