Filipinos urged to reject 'misogynistic' governance

As the world celebrates women, the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) called on the public to reject “undemocratic, misogynistic, and militarist” governance.

In a statement, CWR lamented anew the passage of TRAIN Law as Filipinos continued to suffer from rising prices of food, oil, and other basic commodities.

It likewise called for the review of the Oil Deregulation Law after the biggest yet oil price increase took effect on Tuesday, March 8.

“Women, who are often household managers, are doubly-burdened by skyrocketing prices of basic commodities amid joblessness and depressed minimum wages. In 2020, CWR estimates that 19.54 million women are economically insecure,” said Cham Perez, executive director of CWR.

Perez noted that the Duterte administration recorded the lowest minimum wage increase rate since 1986 at 9.4 percent or from P491 in 2016 to P537 in 2022 in the National Capital Region.

In the countryside, Perez pointed out, rice farmers have “suffered most” due to the Rice Liberalization Law, noting that the average farmgate price of rice grains (palay) dropped from P24.47 in 2018 to P16.40 in 2021.

“Women farmers from Luzon have reported even lower palay prices, as low as Php 9 to Php 13 per kilo. This has kept farmers buried in debt, amid landlessness, lack of agricultural support, and lack of access to services,” she explained.

READ MORE: CWR: Female farmworkers paid less than male counterparts

Perez likewise slammed the “confusing” quarantine classifications, “slow” delivery of vaccines, and the government’s failure to implement mass testing and contact tracing two years into the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The failed pandemic response has also taken a toll on women’s physical and mental health. Loss of jobs coupled with multiple lockdowns and lack of access to transportation has limited women’s access to maternal and reproductive health services,” Perez said.

“Domestic abuses were also expected to rise during lockdowns and women had much less access to VAWC services at the height of the pandemic. All these have caused stress and anxiety to women, who had to find means for the family to survive every day,” she added.

Moreover, Perez decried the passage of Anti-Terror Law, saying it will only “sow fear and silence dissent.”

“From Oplan Tokhang where an estimated 27,000 were killed, including not less than 122 children 0-17 years old, to the Martial Law in Mindanao, where the President himself proudly encouraged soldiers to violate women’s rights with impunity, to the militarist pandemic response, the administration’s policies have been always militarist, always violating women’s and people’s human rights,” Perez stressed.

Citing CWR data, Perez said that a total of 134 women are currently in jail for planted evidence and fabricated charges.

Meanwhile, intimidation, violence, surveillance, and restraint of women from participating in organizations and associations in urban centers in the countryside still continue, according to CWR.

“Our political participation does not begin and end on May 9, when we cast our votes. Every day, we must take part in asserting our collective aspirations and clamor for genuine social change,” Perez concluded.