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Using the Law to Assert Women’s and Children’s Rights: A Handbook of Philippine Legislation on Women and Children

by | Nov 1, 2006

Historically, women in the Philippines held high status in society. We were Babaylans and katalonans (priestesses) then, who were very much revered and involved in the political, economic and social spheres of life. We were also central in the affairs of the clan, in production and decision-making. If there were at all laws or codes to speak of during these times, we were definitely part of the process and the results.

However, this status changed over time as we were influenced and controlled by Islamic laws and the colonial laws of Spain, America and even Japan. The making of laws was irrefutably reflective of our social context and space. For one, the issues of divorce, mobility, and property ownership for women which were recognized during pre-colonial times were radically changed by the Spanish Law that ultimately controlled and placed women in a subordinate position. Basically patterned after the Roman law, we inherit up to this day these biases against women from the Spaniards.

But history has also proven that today’s laws on women have somehow advanced to reflect the real issues and needs of women. The respect for women’s rights was reflected in Kartilya ng Katipunan at the turn of the century. Women’s role in politics has been recognized which is partially attributable to the Philippine suffragette movement. Today’s laws on labor, rape, sexual harassment, sex trafficking, anti-violence against women and many other were results of painstaking advocacy of the Philippine women’s movement.

“A harvest of laws,” is how lawyer Evalyn Ursua, a staunch women’s rights lawyer, referred to laws enacted as a product of the country’s women’s movement. She further asserted that these laws were borne out of the struggles of the women’s movement.

While these laws can be appreciated as concrete gains of the women’s movement, we cannot rely solely on these gains for the defense of women’s rights. For laws are nothing without action. Laws are not always equal to the justice system. Laws become toothless when the powerful and the moneyed class can buy their way out of the many injustices and violence committed against women and children. Worse, laws can be instruments of the state to further degrade and oppress women and children.

Violence against women and children continue to rise despite the existence of these legislation. These laws can be deemed futile for as long as the feudal, patriarchal and bourgeois culture is still very much embedded in our system.

It is for these reasons that the Philippine women’s movement needs to continue its efforts in reclaiming a truly just society, not only through legislative reforms, but through challenging the different social institutions that perpetuate injustice. This can be done through awareness-raising, organizing of women, community consciousness-raising towards prevention of violations and respect and promotion of human rights and women’s rights.

A Women’s Anthology

by | Jul 1, 2003

Foreword

The Cordillera Women’s Education and Resource Center (CWERC) takes pride in announcing the birth of its first anthology of women’s literary and visual arts through its journal KALI. The time is ripe for the unfolding and sharing of women’s creativity and rich interpretation of the various facets of the people’s struggle in the region, and the country in general. The wellspring of people’s literature is the people’s struggle itself.

Through the years, the women’s movement in the Cordillera has not only continuously developed and honed women activists. It has likewise created a generation of chroniclers not only of the women’s struggle but of the people’s movement as well.

The actual involvement of writers and artists in the struggle for social change is the very material that is immortalized through literature, music and the visual arts. The victorious struggle against the Chico Dam development project was an inspiration to many and continues to motivate women writers and artists to draw parallelisms with contemporary struggles against development aggression. The pain and destruction wrought by imperialist incursion compounded by militarization is etched in the psyche of thousands of women in the Cordillera countryside but through poetry, music and sketches the collective experience is transformed into a sharper and resolute commitment to continue the anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle of the militant women’s movement.

A woman organizer is a cultural worker. She joins picketlines and barricades against capitalist exploitation in Lepanto Mines. She treks trails and mountainsides in Dalupirip, Itogon or the remotest sitio in Kalinga and Abra to understand the myriad issues and situations. To be able to motivate other women and the rest of the oppressed and exploited masses to get involved and act for their themselves entails a painstaking process of touching the consciousness and the spirit. Thus capturing through poetry, songs and colors the issues and problems that ail the people becomes an instrument in heightening awareness, arousing the reader or audience to take action.

The anthology showcases Cordillera-based women writers and artists. But a section has also been assigned to other writers and composers outside the region whose words embody the principles and aspirations of the militant women’s movement in the region.

This anthology is for all the people who tirelessly give the women’s movement the inspiration to pursue the struggle and the vision for a truly free and democratic society. And this shall not end here. The anthology of the people’s struggle is voluminous. This is but an initial contribution.