In the Philippines, as in many other countries, the care of patients, at home or in hospitals, is associated with women. There?s a whole women-centered network involved here, which includes visits to the sick. It?s gender politics in the sense that men see themselves as being too busy to handle such ?menial? matters, and therefore assign it to their subordinates, meaning the women.

Lately we?ve been seeing a new twist to all this, with hospitals suddenly becoming highly-charged sites where power is being exercised and challenged. The main characters involved are very powerful women, mainly a former president (Cory Aquino) and the incumbent president (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo), with the former first lady, Imelda Romualdez-Marcos, trying to get a bit of the limelight.

The power play hasn?t been too dramatic but the events do reflect so many aspects of Philippine politics and society, with a fascinating confluence of gender politics and the national political scene.

Let me start with a quick summary of what has been happening with the two protagonists.

I?ll start with former President Cory Aquino, who has been battling colon cancer which has taken her in and out of hospitals. Reflecting her personality, she has tried to be low key and very private about her illness but has drawn great public sympathy, including, right now with her latest hospitalization, a series of healing Masses that are well-attended.

Suddenly, visits to the hospital, or attending the Mass, becomes a way of identifying not just concern for Cory but also one?s position, pro- or anti-administration. Newspapers noted, on the front page, a visit from Susan Roces, widow of Fernando Poe Jr. Some papers noted, too, Imelda?s claim that she had been praying for Cory.

Despite her illness, Cory has continued to speak out on national issues, including, in her latest hospital confinement, her concern over the constituent assembly (Con-ass).

Let?s look now at Ms Arroyo, who was also hospitalized but with great secrecy. News leaked out, including reports that one reason for her hospitalization was to repair, well, a leakage of a breast implant. The irreverent press has pounced on this news item, wondering why she had the breast implant in the first place. Presidential spokespersons at first denied the rumors, then confirmed that there had been an implant and, rather defensively, said that the implant, now being described even in our own staid Inquirer as a ?boob job,? was for medical reasons.

I should be very clear in stating that I believe it?s a woman?s right to decide whether she wants breast implants or not. Some time back, I wrote about how PhilHealth tries to distinguish ?medical? and ?cosmetic? procedures, classifying the latter as not reimbursable. In the real world though, the reasons are not always clear-cut. A woman who has breast surgery for cancer, for example, may ask for an implant and will get PhilHealth coverage because the implant is justified by a ?medical? reason. Yet we know too the procedure is still ?cosmetic? and, for want of a better term, ?vanity? does come into the picture.

That was a long way of saying we should be less judgmental about women who have breast implants. I actually suspect that if it weren?t Arroyo involved, maybe even, implausible as it might seem, Cory Aquino, the public would probably have been more sympathetic. The gossip around Arroyo?s leakage, unfortunately, reflects her unpopularity. Note, too, that there hasn?t been, as far as I know, any initiative to organize healing Masses for Arroyo.

What has happened then is that the hospitalizations and health problems of Aquino and Arroyo have become material for the unfolding of morality plays, where opinions about what?s good and not so good (breast implants) are thinly-disguised commentaries about persons.

These morality plays are not enacted from scripts drawn out of nowhere like telenovelas. Instead, the morality plays build on social and political realities, including the personalities of some of our most powerful women.

Archetypes

In the last year, I?ve been working on drawing up ?archetypes? of the Filipino male to show that there are different types of ?machismo? in the Philippines, drawing from different aspects of our history. This Cory-GMA medical drama has reminded me that there is no single ?Pinay? archetype either.

I?m only going to give a very brief and preliminary description of these archetypes. First, there?s the Tita Cory archetype, ever gracious and compassionate, with a strong sense of noblesse oblige or the sense that the rich should help the poor, sometimes in an almost patronizing way. The Tita Cory?s in our lives are well loved, the ones who visit the sick and who are visited when they are sick.

Arroyo on the other hand is more of the strict Ate (thus, Ate Glo), disciplinarians to the point of being harsh. They are detached, almost unfeeling, and have a strong sense of superiority. Their response to a crisis is usually, ?I know I?m right so don?t challenge me. I will not stoop to your level.?

The Ate Glo?s of our lives puts up a façade of invincibility, ever fearful about showing some humanity, which might be interpreted as weakness. Thus the defensiveness on Arroyo?s part over being hospitalized, and especially over the breast implants (?What, me, vain??).

While the Ate Glos of our lives may have the best intentions (?I know what?s best for you?), they pay for their being aloof. When they are ill, they get visited out of a sense of obligation?sometimes with tongues wagging after the visit.

I can?t help but comment on an Imelda archetype, for whom life is one big continuing performance, with the Imeldas as director, producer and leading actress. Think of how Imelda would have handled her hospitalization. There would have been periodic bulletins, and I don?t think she would have tried to hide the reasons, including an implant, which she would have transformed into a mission for the true, good and beautiful. She, too, would have organized healing Masses, making sure they would be well-attended.

Is it possible that our feelings about our women leaders are shaped in part by our own experiences with the Tita Corys, Ate Glos and Madam Imeldas in our own families?

* * *

Email: mtan@inquirer.com.ph