Thank you, Rosalie

When Rosalie Cabeñan passed away last June at the age of 54, her death would have gone unnoticed by the public save for her family and friends.

But several things made her passing worthy of commentary. For one, in the course of her “reproductive career,” she had gotten pregnant and given birth to 22 children, with her youngest being the preteen Princess. For another, Rosalie, her husband Danilo, and some of her children had been the subjects of an award-winning documentary aired over GMA-7 on the show “Front Row.” The documentary, titled “Bente Dos” (Twenty-two), won the Silver Medal in the New York Festivals for TV and Film in 2012 .

Rosalie had been referred to a clinic in Baseco, the urban poor area near the docks of Manila where she lived. In fact, it turns out that the hovel where Rosalie, Danilo, and some of their children lived was but a few meters from the clinic of Likhaan, an NGO that now manages with international partner clinics that provide health services for women and their children, with an emphasis on reproductive health.

But by that time, Rosalie was done with childbearing. She was drawn though to the work, mainly because she was worried about the health of her daughters of child-bearing age who threatened to follow their mother’s fecund history.

She became a volunteer, offering herself and her family as an example on the need for women to have access to RH services. In the years when the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law was still being hotly debated, Rosalie also became a most convincing campaigner for its passage and implementation.

“Madiskarte (filled with gumption, spunky)” is how her friends at Likhaan describe Rosalie. Her husband Danilo has been a long-time street cleaner employed by the Department of Public Works and Highways, while she took in laundry work and accepted consignments for goods to sell in Divisoria.

But clearly, not even better-paying jobs would have been enough to raise 22 children. Instead, the children were fielded to work as soon as they could fend for themselves, with most being pulled out of school before they could even finish elementary, save for one or two who managed to “step into” high school.

When things got desperate, Danilo and Rosalie resorted to “dispersing” their children, with two daughters sent to a relative in Bulacan to work in a home-based garments operation (a powerful segment of the documentary was a tearful reunion when Rosalie paid a visit). A son was sent to Marawi, and until her death, Rosalie had no idea how he was doing.

Three of her children are buried nearby, two of them succumbed to childhood illnesses while another boy fell into the fetid sewer outside their house, drowning in minutes. Meanwhile, one or two girls entered the “akyat-barko” trade, clambering up rope ladders of ships to “service” the mariners.

In “Bente Dos,” Danilo was asked how they ended up with so many children. “Well, what do you want us to do?” he asked in Filipino. “Wasn’t sleeping with my wife better than looking for pleasure with other women?”

Rosalie, then 49 when she first visited, was asked by Likhaan staff what health services she needed. She declared firmly that she thought she was too old for family planning and had in fact resisted early offers of family planning. “Besides, it was already too late for her,” observed Likhaan executive director Dr. Junice Melgar. “She was a heavy smoker and was at risk of hypertension which ruled out contraceptive pills.”

For years, Rosalie had been complaining of weakness and feeling out of breath. She visited a public health center but backed out when told she needed to undergo an MRI test. After her passing, her family found out that she had bone cancer.

In a Facebook post, Melgar wrote: “Good-bye Rosalie, mother of 22 children, wife, worker of varied and endless skills, teacher of the value of the right of women to decide for themselves. Inspiring story behind our fight for the RH Law so that many more women could avoid the tragedy that awaited you. Thank you, our sister!”