Press Release
7 March 2008
Reference: Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, Chairperson
As the country observes the International Women’s Day tomorrow, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said that the movement of women for greater political participation, for genuine social change, and against gender-related abuses, oppression, and exploitation is gaining strength.
Bayan chairperson Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo said that this can be seen in the active leadership and participation of women’s groups and women personalities in the campaign for truth, justice, and change amid the latest corruption scandal bedeviling the Arroyo government.
“Filipino women have a long history and continuing tradition of leadership and heroism. We see it again in the struggle to make the Arroyo regime accountable for its numerous crimes against the people. From the nuns who have given sanctuary to whistleblower Lozada, to the women activists who have been tirelessly organizing and leading awareness-raising events and street protests, we can see their important role in the movement for social justice and reforms”, Araullo said.
Mrs. Gloria Arroyo is currently facing a new wave of huge protests from various sectors demanding her resignation or ouster after Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr implicated her husband in the $329-million broadband corruption scandal. Arroyo’s cabinet officials and several police officers have also been charged of abducting Lozada, a former government consultant, and undertaking a cover-up of the broadband scandal.
“It is only right that many women are in the thick, if not leading, the fight against the detested regime of a woman-president. It only shows that for these women, plunder and other high crimes, whether committed by a man or a woman in office should not go unpunished. By not tolerating the crimes committed by one of our own, we show what justice truly means”, argued the woman leader of Bayan.
Araullo noted that the Arroyo government, in fact, has a long list of crimes against women. “The anti-people economic policies and corruption of her regime impact most harshly on women. As poverty and unemployment worsen, women provide the coping mechanisms for Filipino families to survive. They are oppressed twice over, in their own homes and as they eke out a living, many as contractual workers or toilers in the underground economy. Labor migration, the primary means with which families try to survive the lingering economic crisis, has been increasingly feminized in the last three decades. More than 60% of deployed migrant workers are women”, said Araullo.
Bayan and its affiliate groups will join the commemoration of International Women’s Day on March 8, which will be led by the broad alliance Babae Laban sa Katiwalian (BABALA) and Bayan member-organization Gabriela. The rally forms part of the people’s continuing campaign to ferret out the culpability of the Arroyos in the broadband scandal, remove the corrupt regime and begin the process of meaningful reforms in the country’s political governance and economic management.
