Three landmark documents for gender-fair, sensitive portrayal in mass media launched

The Media and Gender Equality Committee (MGEC), chaired by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) launched on March 22 at the National Telecommunications Office, the three document-outputs, landmarks toward gender-fair mass media.

The three documents are: the Gender Equality Guidelines, Guidelines to Protect Women against Discrimination in Media and Film, and Code of Ethics for Media formulated by the MGEC to achieve gender-fair and sensitive portrayal in mass media and art productions.

This was gathered during the local validation of the Women’s Economic, Development, and Gender Equality Plan or Women’s EDGE Plan for 2013-2016 led by the Philippine Commission on Women.

The Gender Equality Guidelines is also applicable to schools of journalism, communication and information to help prepare students become gender sensitive.

On the issue of media’s self-regulation, the Code of Ethics for Media is offered as a “guide” which media organizations can use in reviewing existing policies and Code of Ethics.

The Guidelines to Protect Women against Discrimination in Media and Film contains provisions that promote the dignity of women and their roles and contributions in the family, community and society.

Those who attended the launching were the PCOO, its attached agencies, Philippine Commission on Women, NTC, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, Women Feature Service, Optical Media Board, Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, Film Development Council of the Philippines, Film Academy of the Philippines, and National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

The Magna Carta of Women requires the state to formulate policies and programs for the advancement of women in collaboration with the government and non-government media-related organizations. The law also requires government to raise the consciousness of the general public in recognizing the dignity of women in the family, community, and the society through the strategic use of mass media.

Moreover, the Magna Carta of Women encourages government to ensure allocation of space, airtime, and resources, strengthen programming, production and image-making that appropriately presents women needs, issues, and concerns in all forms of media, communication, information dissemination, and advertising.

The law also requires all media organizations and corporations to integrate into their human resource development components regular on gender equality and gender-based discrimination; create and use gender equality guidelines in all aspects of management, training, production, information, dissemination, communication and programming; and convene a gender equality committee that will promote gender mainstreaming as a framework and affirmative action as a strategy, and monitor and evaluate the implementation of gender equality guidelines.

Environment Dept partners with academe to protect ecologically rich islets in Guiuan

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Eastern Samar State University have inked a memorandum of agreement in a bid to protect and develop the ecologically rich Monbon and Batan Islets in Barangay Bungtod, Guiuan, Eastern Samar.

In a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed last March 18, the DENR grants rights to ESSU for the special use of the 21.8 hectares Monbon/Batan Islets and pursue the implementation of activities related to sustainable management of coastal and marine resources in said islets.

The MOA provides that the management of the said islets shall now be jointly undertaken by the two parties, DENR Regional Executive Director Manolito Ragub informed.

Monbon/Batan Islets forms part of the total 60,448 hectares Guiuan Marine Reserve Protected Landscape and Seascape (GMRPLS), a protected area under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992 or Republic Act No.7586.

Under the agreement, the ESSU represented by its Administrator, Andres Pagatpatan, Jr., adhere to prescribed environmental protection measures as it makes use of the Monbon/Batan Islets and its vicinities.

Sustainable activities to be pursued include among others: resource and habitat conservation, protection, rehabilitation, and introduction of ecotourism projects for educational and research purposes.

On the other hand, the DENR through its Regional Executive Director Manolito Ragub, shall delineate and demarcate the exact boundaries of the islets and provide ESSU the map of the area which could be used in planning and implementing project activities.

Being inside the GMRPLS, the activities of ESSU in the Monbon/Batan islets shall be duly indorsed by the GMRPLS Protected Area Management Board, the governing Board of GMRPLS which has a multi- sectoral membership, RED Ragub said.

GMRPLS PAMB endorsed the approval and issuance of a Special Use Agreement within Protected Area (SAPA) per PAMB resolution No. 004 dated October 2009.

However, meantime that the SAPA issuance is still suspended, operation of the ESSU is legally based on the Special Land Use Permit, this MOA, and the provisions in the Local Government Code of 1991, Ragub added.

The DENR Director said the agreement shall cover a period of three years renewable for another three years, until a SAPA is in place.

ESSU is a duly recognized government academic institution mandated by law to provide quality advanced education, research and extension services particularly in the province of Eastern Samar where Monbon/Batan Islets are located.

The DENR recognizes the need to involve various stakeholders such as ESSU and other agencies particularly the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, non-government organizations in the management and protection of areas like Monbon/Batan Islets, Ragub said.

East Visayas women occupy only 1/4 of electoral posts

The results of the last National and Local Elections conducted in May 2010 showed that women occupy only 25.4% or one-fourth of electoral positions in Eastern Visayas region.

The National Statistical Coordination Board in Region 8 said that men dominated all electoral positions at 74.6%, but largely the congressional, gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial positions at 83.3%.

On the other hand, a considerable proportion vice mayors are women at 27.3%, mayors, 25.9% and board members, 23.2% of local legislative bodies.

According to NSCB, in the 2010 elections, only 21.4 percent of those elected to government positions in the country, were women.

In the Philippine Senate, in the outgoing 15th Congress, out of 24 senators only three are women.

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of promoting gender equality and empowering women, which targets 50.0% of electoral positions to be held by women by 2015, is still far from being achieved.

However, although only a quarter of electoral seats are occupied by Eastern Visayas women, they are in equal footing with men in terms of exercising their rights to suffrage.

Based on the data of the Commission on Elections, voters’ turnout among women (80.8%) was slightly higher than among men (80.0%). Women posted higher voters’ turnout than their male counterpart in all provinces, except in Southern Leyte.

"Pamalandong," Palo, Leyte's Holy Week traditions

All roads lead to Palo, Leyte which is about 7 kilometers from Tacloban City, on Good Friday as the faithful from all over Eastern Visayas flock there for the observance of Holy Week traditions that have been kept alive all through the years.

 

Aptly, Palo was declared in the Diocesan Synod of 1910 as a center of faith and religiosity in Eastern Visayas.

At center of the activities is the Archdiocese of Palo under the pastorship of Archbishop John Du and the parish priest of the Lord’s Transfiguration Parish Monsignor Bernardo Pantin, with full support from the Municipal Government of Palo under the leadership of Mayor Remedios Loretto Petilla. 

The Holy Week tradition starts with the Palm Sunday rites held at the Lourdes Grotto at the Church’s patio with a vantage view as it is facing the highway.

On Holy Thursday, the priests of each vicariate gather with the Archbishop to consecrate holy oils, which are used throughout the year for the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick. This ancient practice, which goes back to the fifth century, is known as the Chrism Mass and stresses the role of the bishop as a successor to the apostles. "Chrism" is a mixture of oil and balsam used for the holy oils.

It is during this time when all the priests under the Archdiocese renew their vow in the presence of Archbishop Du.

At 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon, “The Last Supper” is observed in the cathedral with Archbishop Du leading the activity.

The Pamalandong or meditation on Good Friday is the highlight of the Palo Lenten traditions. So grand the Pamalandong has become that several Palo roads have to be closed and traffic has to be rerouted.

Pamalandong because of its significance and crowd-drawing potentials has been adopted as the first part of the 4Ps Tourism Promotion program of the municipal government under the present administration of Mayor Remedios Petilla; the other Ps being “Patron ha Palo” (Fiesta in Palo), “Pagbalik ha Palo” (Leyte Gulf Landing Commemoration) and “Pasko ha Palo.”

Pamalandong is a re-enactment of the Lord´s Passion celebrated in Palo. It consists of religious rituals which start at 12:00 at noon at the Lourdes Grotto at the grounds of the Palo Cathedral. 

The Good Friday rites include "The seven Last Words" as explained by the best priests in the Archdiocese, during which, the Passion of Christ is re-enacted by participants in full regalia who underwent recollection to spiritually prepare them for the role they would be playing.  

“Providing spiritual assistance to those who are participating in the re-enactment is important because the role the actors will be doing is part of a spiritual activity,” Msgr. Pantin stressed.

Oldest of Palo’s Holy Week traditions is the Penitentes, a penitential fraternity of cassocked, barefoot, and hooded members organized by Fray Pantaleon de le Fuente, OFM in 1984 supposedly to replace the flagellants, fanatics who whipped themselves or have themselves whipped to atone for wrong doings, whose cult of fanatics was gaining momentum among the faithful.

It is popularly known among the locals as “tais-dupol,” as those penitents who wear “tais” or pointed hoods are married men and “dupol” for single men.

With the seventh last word uttered and the death of Christ depicted and brought down from the cross, a procession that includes all the biblical characters of the Passion play starts.

A quaint Good Friday local custom is the gathering of the leaves from the mock-forest where the three crosses stand, by the people who believe that the same would bring luck, cure illness and other attributes.

With their faith rekindled and their thirsty souls quenched, the pious go home ready once more to face trials and tribulations.