Women’s Party Closes Doors on GMA, Lacson

Gabriela Women’s Party, a new entry in the party-list election, is not endorsing any presidential candidate at the moment and that it is open for talks but its doors are definitely closed on President Macapagal-Arroyo and Senator Lacson.

By Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat.com

BAGUIO CITY (Nordis) — The Gabriela Women’s Partylist (GWP) last week urged the Filipino voting public to junk President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) and Sen. Panfilo Lacson in the May 2004 elections.

In a news conference last week, Imelda Tabiando, GWP national vice-chairperson for Luzon, said that GWP is not endorsing any presidential candidate at the moment and that it is open for talks but its doors are definitely closed to Macapagal-Arroyo and Lacson.

Tabiando stressed that the incumbent President’s poor performance is enough reason to junk her this coming election. She added that GWP disregarded Lacson because of his human rights violation cases.

GWP is a new entry to the party-list elections but its leaders are very confident to win seats in Congress with an expected 506,000 votes.

Tabiando explained that that GWP’s expected half million votes will come from its nationwide membership as committed by regional chapters. She added that the GWP vote is expected to swell during the campaign period.

Jacqueline K. Carińo, GWP’s fifth nominee and indigenous women representative, declared that there is a greater need to popularize the essence of the party-list system more than the GWP. “Ang kailangang habulin  ay ang awareness sa partylist system dahil marami pa rin ang hindi bumoboto ng partylist dahil hindi nila alam kung ano ito,” Carińo explained.

Meanwhile, Innabuyog-Gabriela, the Cordillera women’s alliance, sees the current electoral exercise as an opportunity to inform and educate “a bigger number of women and their communities on the issues and situations they are confronting.” The women’s alliance said they will teach the poor women to use their issues and concrete conditions as a bargaining agenda for candidates who will woo their votes.

Vernie Yocogon-Diano, Innabuyog-Gabriela secretary general, added that Gabriela, as national women’s alliance, is two-decades old; its 20^th anniversary will be marked this year.

In its 20 years, Diano said that women organizations were able to establish enough strength to pursue their struggles. “The two decades of Gabriela are two decades of building the national women’s movement in the country,” she said.

Diano explained that through Bayan Muna, Gabriela joined the legislative struggle.  Liza L. Maza, Gabriela’s then secretary general and one of Bayan Muna’s representatives in Congress, brought the voice of the women in the halls of Congress.

In the past years, Gabriela spearheaded and supported campaigns opposing violence against women which include the Purple Rose Campaign; international campaigns against sex trafficking of Filipino women and children; and justice for the Filipino comfort women during the Japanese occupation.  Other campaigns were anti-U.S. bases, anti-militarization and human rights violations from the Marcos dictatorship up to the present. It was also in the frontline of the oust-Estrada movement.

Gabriela also participated in the fight against globalization and Visiting Forces Agreement. Kim N. Quitasol for Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat.com

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