---------------------------------------------------------------------------From:
GABRIELA Philippines
Subject: Beijing Platform of Action:
Ten years after: More burdens than triumphs
Date: Sun, February 27, 2005 8:07 pm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
GABRIELA
A National Alliance of Women’s Organizations in the Philippines
Beijing Platform of Action
TEN YEARS AFTER: MORE BURDENS THAN TRIUMPHS
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 particular 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 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 remained 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 families who had long borne the brunt of government
bankruptcy.
Currently, six out of ten Filipino families live in a hand to mouth
existence, meaning their daily income is way below the cost of living. In
reality, 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 % of the population) experienced hunger at least once within
the time frame 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 food alternatives
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. Taxes per se are not bad if they directly translate to
tangible services such as health, housing and education.
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% 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 6
US cents) per 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.
As for education, more women than men have enrolled, but the rate of
female dropouts have also increased. The main reasons are mostly economic
in nature especially with the high cost of education even in public
schools and state universities.
In a feudal and patriarchal society like the Philippines, males 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% of teenage Filipino
women have begun child bearing while 38% of women age 20-24 have already
borne a child. Out of 10 pregnancies, 4 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 countrysides. 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. ###
==================================================
Milady S. Quito
National Campaigns Director
GABRIELA Network - US
A Philippine-US Women's Solidarity Organization
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: www.gabnet.org
www.purplerosecampaign.org
==================================================
*** GABRIELA Network is a Philippine-US women's solidarity organization
since 1989. GABNet provides the means by which Filipinas in the US can
empower themselves, functions as training ground for women's leadership,
and articulates the women's point of view. GABNet effects change through
organizing, educating, fundraising, networking, and advocacy.
GABRIELA stands for...
General
Assembly
Binding women for
Reform,
Integrity,
Equality,
Leadership and
Action
It also commemorates Gabriela Silang, known as one of the first and
fiercest women generals in the Philippines who led the longest series of
successful revolts against 18th Century Spanish colonizers.
GABNet-US is an all-volunteer organization of women with chapters in
Chicago, Irvine, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, San Francisco/Bay Area,
Seattle and Washington D.C. ***
==================================================
GABRIELA Network - Los Angeles Chapter
A US-Philippine Women's Solidarity Organization
PO Box 3032
Cerritos, CA 90703-3032
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: www.gabnet.org
www.purplerosecampaign.org
==================================================
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Help save the life of a child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's
'Thanks & Giving.'
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mGEjbB/5WnJAA/E2hLAA/7gSolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
