WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE IN RP, 70 YEARS AFTER ITS GRANTING

The women of the Philippines must not let this day pass without a prayer of thanksgiving and jubilation. Seventy years ago today, on April 30, 1937, the women of the Philippines were granted the right to vote and to be voted upon.

The significance of the occasion is highlighted with the fact that because of the granting of women’s rights of suffrage in 1937, the country has a woman, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as its President today.

Today, the women of the Philippines should take a real serious assessment on how relevant the women’s right of suffrage is especially as this year is an election year. Is the women’s vote’s significant enough to let the candidates take a second look at the women sector especially the disadvantaged and those in the hinterlands?

For the young women and for those who do not know it, the 1935 Constitutional Convention denied women the right to vote and limited the right of suffrage to male citizens allegedly because “there was no popular demand for the right of suffrage by Filipino women themselves” and that the granting of the right of suffrage to women will only disrupt family unity as the women will plunge into the swamp of politics.

To make the long story short, the final version of the Constitution of 1935 stipulated that the right of suffrage would be extended to women, only if 300,000 women voted in its favor during a national plebiscite.

Commonwealth Act No. 34 was passed setting the plebiscite on April 30, 1937. For the first time female voters registered on April 10 and 17, 1937.

On April 30, 1937, women from all over the country numbering to 447,725 voted yes and in the 1939 elections, the women and men voters of the Philippines, voted the first woman Senator of the country in the person of the late Senator Geronima Pecson.

What followed was a colorful history of women’s venture into the various levels of electoral victories highlighted by the emerging of two women presidents in the person of former President Corazon Aquino and current President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Inching ahead, is how many observers describe the women’s vote in the country. In the 2001 elections for example, the women sector lost its representation with the failure of any women party to reach the 2% threshold of the party-list elections.

The “women working for women” cannot be seen in the result of the elections. As the study conducted by the Ateneo School of Government and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung concluded, “there still exists no sectoral vote. Groups representing sectors cannot rely on their sectoral constituencies to win them seats.”

The absence of a women’s vote is really a wonder considering that there are more women registered voters than men and considering that there is always a higher female voters’ turnout than the male counterpart.

The consolation is that there an incremental increase of women in the various fields of public service. Moreover, women’s expressions of involvement in civil society could be through organizing along gender-specific issues and formation of all-women groups within broad coalitions as power-enhancing mechanisms. Women’s agenda are also integrated in party platforms and even in legislative hearing and consultation. In short, all these are efforts to uplift the status of the Filipina.

As the women of the Philippines remember the granting of the women’s right of suffrage 70 years ago, it is good to pay tribute to the more than 44,000 Filipinas who voted Yes to amend the Constitution and to give women the right to vote.

Recognition is more than ever due to the women leaders of the feminist and women’s groups circa 1900 who banded together and really worked hard so that the women of today will enjoy equally with men, the right of suffrage.

And what better way for the women of today, to show gratitude for the right of suffrage the women are enjoying now than renewing their advocacy and support for clean, honest and orderly May 14 elections.

Big-hearted women of RP, India find empowerment by helping fellow women

For both the Philippines and India, the silent revolution in the rural areas, of women helping in the community development efforts, is spreading its wings slowly but surely.

India and the Philippines have many things in common-the fight against hunger and poverty, uneducation and illiteracy, restlessness of the people and terrorism.

There is one similarity however, which is not readily identified - both have kind and rich-hearted women who in the Philippines have found empowerment; while those in India, have found new prosperity mantra, helping their fellow women and in so doing, their countrymen.

Unknown and unnoticed (if not deliberately ignored) by some sectors, both women rose from the bondage of poverty and are now enjoining and inspiring other people to follow suit.

In Hyderabad in the southern part of India, there is Pakiramna, a former scavenger; Mahammadbi who is wife of a former bonded laborer; Rameswarame, a fruit vendor who along with twelve other women have been invited by the government to teach rural women of the State ;how to believe in themselves and to leave behind poverty.

Coming from several tiny villages in the Kurnool district, these women will travel to the other districts in Decemberto motivate women there to make the government's Livelihood Promotion Project, a success.

These women who are called Community Resource Persons, the women have been given the mandate to study the conditions of the poor, conduct a survey to identify the poorest of the poor, form them into self-help groups and finally teach the mantra of Orvakal that enabled them to banish poverty through self-help.

For the past ten years, these group of women save every rupee everyday, from their earnings. Small groups of women then pooled their savings and set up a bank from which they lend money for purchasing land, small business and other self-employment activities. The rest is history.

In the Philippines, these stories are replicated everyday. What is reassuring is that these Indian women just like their countless Filipino counterparts, have taught women lessons of their fight against poverty through teamwork.

Unhesitatingly, these two groups of women from the two different countries of the world, will tell their inspiring success stories and narrate to the people how to pool in their resources because what they cannot do alone, they can do if they will as a team act with one vision and one mission.

GOVT VOWS TO COOL DOWN ANY BREWING POLITICAL VIOLENCE

Political tensions are never justification for the use of force or arms. More condemnable, are the unscrupulous persons who are taking advantage of the current election climate. They are the scourges of a democratic society.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, treating the escalating violence as a real cause of concern, has ordered the Philippine National Police to keep a tight watch on potential trouble spots.
The government is closely taking note of the reported potential trouble spots which are recommended under election control even as it directed the Philippine National Police to cool down any brewing election violence in the areas of concern.

Although, the Philippine National Police has already noted a down-trend in election related violence in the country, it does not waver a bit in its vigilance and intensive campaign against private armed groups which have been reduced to 38 from the 90 groups recorded in 2001.

The government is determined to have a peaceful and orderly May elections. This resolve is shown by the fielding of 89,000 police personnel to secure polling places, the assigning of two cops per voting center, the deployment of the elite Special Action Force in critical areas, and the deployment of soldiers in areas with serious armed threats.

The forthcoming May election is an indication that democracy is alive in the country. It is an occasion when the Filipino people are able to exercise their sacred right of suffrage and so the government must really see to it that they are able to fulfill this right without threat and fear.

The electoral process will be a show window that will tell the world that democracy continues to reign, to mature in the Philippines and that the Filipino people can be trusted to make the right choices at the polls.