‘Formidable women’ in politics

To Mr. Richard Heydarian,

Has Sara Duterte ever done anything as courageous as lending her formidable voice to the cause of the EJK victims and thousands of poor men and boys yet to be collateral damage in her father’s diabolical war on drugs?

As far as I know, Sara manifested toughness only  when she imperiously slapped a subordinate in Davao, her family’s fiefdom. What were you thinking when you placed her on the same league with the true heroines of our times like Maria Lourdes Sereno, Conchita Carpio Morales, Leni Robredo and Leila de Lima?  Why is Risa Hontiveros missing in your list?

The courage of those five women is in contrast with the ladies in our Senate who are  riding high on the popularity game,  namely, Cynthia Villar, Nancy Binay and Loren Legarda.

What have they to say about the EJKs? Have these prominent ladies ever said anything about the most raging issue of this era?

Don’t tell me that, for all the growing lamentations about EJKs, these supposedly noble ladies don’t have an iota of concern for the victims.

Or are they subdued by the fear of falling out of grace with the administration should they speak according to conscience, as De Lima did?

Is it too much to expect more sensitivity and sensibility from Villar, Binay and Legarda if only by virtue of their gender and high profiles?

Where was their outrage when their fellow female senator’s personal affairs were dragged through the mud? Where is their motherly compassion as thousands of mothers like them lose their sons?

If keeping out of political harm’s way is to be a major preoccupation of these “popular” ladies, then they better leave the battlefield to more gutsy females, and just as well sit at home.

FERNANDO GARCIA, fg78636@gmail.com