‘Ka’ Jovy: exemplar at the Senate

Growing up, I had Jovito Salonga as one of my “heroes” in the government. In the 1960s, long before he figured in the tragic Plaza Miranda bombing of 1971, Salonga had already established a reputation not just for intelligence and smarts, but also for honesty, integrity and courage.

One of my most vivid memories of him was of a time, long after he sought and lost the presidency after the 1986 Edsa Revolt, when he was invited to address a citizens’ assembly on the need for reforms in the government. Organizers were waiting for a call from him or his retainers so they could assist and accompany him from his car to the assembly hall. But imagine their surprise when he suddenly walked in, unescorted and without a fuss, looking for the nearest empty chair, even if a place onstage had been reserved for him. Humility exuded from his person.

This was a man who had spent decades in the service of the country, whose name alone evoked images of a storied past when the Senate was considered a chamber of the best and brightest the country had to offer. In fact, I had to chuckle and suppress a pang in my heart at a meme I saw on Facebook. There were portraits of Salonga and two other “giants” in the Senate: the late senators Jose W. Diokno and Lorenzo Tañada. Joining them, in jarring contrast, was Manny Pacquiao, the boxing champ and “poor man from GenSan,” but also a “reformed” gambler and womanizer turned homophobic preacher who, in his stint in the House of Representatives, was hardly present and drafted a grand total of zero bills.

How low have we sunk, indeed. And the fault for that lamentable development lies squarely with us, the voters, and the careless way we have squandered our legacy of democracy and good governance!

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A special guest at the gathering of women for the National Anti-Poverty Commission’s celebration of Women’s Month was Liberal Party vice-presidential candidate Leni Robredo. Which was only proper because Robredo is the only woman running for the post of vice president in the May elections.

“We wanted to listen to her agenda and how she will pursue [the women’s] agenda,” explained Celia Matea Flor, the sectoral representative for women in the NAPC Council. “We wanted to hear what she can do to improve our participation in the decision-making processes that the current administration has put in place.”

The NAPC assembly was dubbed the “Women’s Action for Gender Equality, Peace and Development: Crafting the NAPC Basic Sectors’ Gender Equality and Women’s Human Rights Agenda 2016-2022.” Women leaders from all over the country participated in assessing the efforts of the Aquino administration in promoting gender equality and women empowerment.

Held on March 9-10 at the Sequioa Hotel in Quezon City, the assembly also crafted a specific policy agenda to further promote gender equality. These policies include strategies on peace, security and justice; economic empowerment; gender responsive governance; and climate change and disaster risk reduction, among others.

One of the biggest accomplishments of the P-Noy administration on behalf of women, said Flor, was the President’s “determined support for one of the most contentious bills the women ever pushed: the reproductive health bill.” The legislation, she said, “became a law under his watch, amid rabid opposition from all over, most notably the Church.”

Also leading discussions at the NAPC assembly were Emmeline Versoza, executive director of the Philippine Commission on Women, and Rosalinda Ofreneo, a professor at the University of the Philippines Center for Women’s Studies.

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A major concern of the women at the assembly was the need to increase the participation of women not just in civic affairs but also in the decision-making process. While measures to promote women’s participation and representation were put in place during the P-Noy administration, such as policy issuances of the Bottom-up Budgeting program that requires at least 40 percent representation of women, “we need to look at the quality of our participation and assess whether having our seats at the negotiating table has resulted in better outputs and outcomes of government programs and projects,” said Flor.

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Meanwhile, a woman leader among the sectoral group of fishers called on the national government to “improve programs that protect and support women fisherfolk.” Issuing the challenge was Gavina Tumbaga, who chairs the Payao Credit Cooperative of the City of San Fernando in La Union and the City Fishery and Aquatic Resources Management Council.

From the outset, implied Gavina, women fishers are disadvantaged because they are often overlooked or ignored, since the common image of the “fisherman” is that of a man, even if women are just as active in helping earn income from fishing.

“There are women in the fishing industry—we can see them making fishing gear, selling fish and fish products, gathering seashells, throwing nets to catch fish—but their roles and rights are often not recognized, and worse, they remain vulnerable to environmental and human-made disasters because there are no programs that address their specific needs,” Tumbaga said.

The woman leader said that the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture should take into consideration the fishers’ gender so that the information can be utilized in shaping gender-sensitive fishery policies and programs. It can also serve as a gender-auditing mechanism to ensure that all programs and projects benefit both women and men in the fishing industry, she added.

Recent data from the Department of Labor and Employment reveal that there are about 131,000 women fishers in the Philippines.