Norma P. Dollaga, Kasimbayan Women’s Collective
The new woman, the new Filipina is,
first and foremost, a militant.
The new Filipina is one who can stay
whole days and nights with striking workers,
learning from them the social realities
which her bourgeois education has kept from her.
She is a woman who has discovered the exalting realm of responsibility,
a woman fully engaged in the making of history.
– -Ma. Lorena Barros
Lorena Barros was the founding Chair of Makibaka.[1] She was a poet, a writer, a feminist, an activist, and a revolutionary. She fought against dictatorship and later became an icon of the women’s patriotic movement. Her words and deeds were unacceptable for a dictator and a fascist; the dictator Marcos set a P35,000 reward for her capture.[2]
Today, President Rodrigo Duterte—the one who championed a hero’s burial of Marcos—continues uttering misogynist remarks, sexist jokes and convoluted opinions on women. His behavior is a great disservice to Filipino women in particular as well as the Filipino people in general.
Duterte’s pronouncements of hate and rants against women should not be downplayed as his personal view. These are a political construct and attack against women from the highest office of the land. They are an overreach of structural power that seeks to justify domination and reinforce institutional hate, oppression, and violence against women.
According to Kate Manne, “sexism is an ideology, a set of beliefs, holding that it is natural, and therefore desirable, for men and women to perform in taking and giving roles. Misogyny functions like a ‘police force,’ punishing women who deviate from them. Generally, this police force also rewards obedience – elevating women who advance patriarchal interests. But, because it defines women in terms of a giving function, misogyny also tends to treat women as interchangeable.”[3]
Misogyny is tyrannical. It punishes any woman who does not comply with the standards, of the rising fascism and dictatorial rule. Duterte does not hate all women: he hates, punishes and persecute women who fight against his oppression, exploitation, corruption and rising dictatorship.
Let’s look more closely at Duterte’s braggadocio:
- “Itong mga babae, prim and proper man ‘yan, isang tingin lang sa nanay niyan wala na, tunaw na ‘yan,” (These women, they are prim and proper. Just one look from their mothers and they’ll melt).[4]
- “Tell the soldiers, there’s a new order coming from Mayor. We won’t kill you. We will just shoot your vagina so that… if there are no vagina, it would be useless.”[5]
- “There are many rape cases in that city because there are many beautiful women there.”[6]
- “I looked up to the sky and said, ‘Lord, I hope only the ugly died. I hope the beautiful ones did not.’ The Lord said, ‘That’s okay.’”[7] (in front of Yolanda victims)
- His bragging about how he molested their maid, while he was a teenager.[8]
- His rape joke during presidential campaign saying, “I looked at her face, son of a bitch, she looks like a beautiful American actress. Son of a bitch, what a waste. What came to mind was, they raped her, they lined up. I was angry because she was raped, that’s one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first.” [9]
- “I’ll take your place in prison. If you rape three [women], I’ll take the blame.” (to soldiers in Iligan City at the height of the Marawi siege which was also used to put Mindanao under military rule)[10]
- In Korea, he created the conditions so that he could kiss an OFW woman on her lips him, to cheers from the crowd. After he said, “Dalaga ka? Hindi naman kayo hiwalay? Pero kaya mo sabihin na biro lang ito?” (Are you single? You are not separated from him? But you can tell him that this is just a joke?)[11]
For the tyrant to remain in power misogyny, patriarchy, sexism, oppression, exploitation are all being employed. Duterte attacks against women to demonstrate that it is justifiable for women to be raped, shamed, and put down. He works to fortify the perception that women must remain to be in their gendered roles and assignments. To counter the “tradition” or “norm” is dangerous, as it will destabilize the patriarchal order and weaken the exploitative structure of the social and political system.
President Duterte has entitled himself—as “executive officer” of a rotten system that promotes and reinforces patriarchy, and sexism—to the role of chief misogynist. As he sanctions and glorifies rape and violence against women through thinly veiled jokes and outright pronouncements, he displays his arrogance of “I am in Power” reinforces a traditional stereotyping of women.
Women Rising Against Tyranny
We must draw our strength from the women’s movements that challenged the normalcy of patriarchy, oppression and exploitation.
- Women who were not “prim and proper” adhering to patriarchy, fought for dignity, rights and justice. They measured their strength in their efforts to change the system and not in the machoism of brawls and fistfights. They were the working-class women, the activist and socialist women who gave birth to what we observe now as International Women’s Day(IWD). They suffered under an exploitative and oppressive system, and chose to fight and rise up. They fought for justice in the midst of persecution and punishment. They defied and broke the laws of patriarchy, domination, and subjugation. They subverted the imposition of the rulers who defined women to the confines of silence, compliance, and submissiveness.
- March 8 as IWD is the product of a long struggle of poor women, most particularly female industrial workers, who stood boldly for justice in the face of state-sanctioned repression and exploitation of working-class women. A century ago, women dared to challenge what was supposedly the normal working-class experience—long work hours, low wages, and indecent working conditions.
- Women did not have the right to suffrage then. In the Philippines, the early 1900s were also the era when women started to fight and work to claim their right to vote. The historic day of April 30, 1937, when women were allowed to vote and run for public office, was the product of women’s courage and political will to participate in the political life of the country. Women stretched beyond norms to gain this right; it was hard-earned victory.
- The Malayang Kilusang nga Bagong Kababaihan (MAKIBAKA) was organized in 1970 under the leadership of a woman student leader Lorena Barros. The organization sharply articulated the need for national liberation and the emancipation of women from oppression and exploitation. Raising strong criticism on beauty pageant/contests that commodify women’s bodies, MAKIBAKA breadth was much more, becoming an underground movement under the Martial Law of Marcos. Many members of MAKIBAKA were attacked and suffered under the dictatorship of Marcos.
Keeping the fire burning, women and women’s movements continue to lead us forward, even at the darkest moments of the night. Women who defy the traditional, gendered stereotypes continue to push back. The struggle goes on. Women continue to strive to overcome exploitation and patriarchy.
The creeping tyranny and dictatorship that characterizes the macho governance of Pres. Duterte is evident. In its failure to address the roots of the armed conflict and poverty, the government instead pushes schemes that suppress and oppress the rising people’s resistance to injustice. The human rights violations of this administration are widespread. In its inability to address drug addiction and to quell the illegal drug trade, Duterte has whipped his state forces into a murderous bloody onslaught against the poor. To justify the violation of human rights, Duterte seeks to resuscitate long ineffective methods of repression of civil and political rights, that are both anti-people and anti-poor. And as Duterte employs macho-tyrant tactics, his cohorts continue to reap the benefits of their support of the rising dictatorship.
For women from the toiling majority, such realities will bring no good. The ugly and obnoxious manners and governance of the President must be subverted to give way for women’s liberation and empowerment.
We must remind each other of Mary’s song in the Bible that rejects the powerful and arrogant thieves—who still not only food and basic rights from the people, but also their freedom, dignity, and a prosperous future. Mary’s Magnificat holds the promise that the tyrants will be brought down from their thrones and sent away empty.
“He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in their thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly…” (Luke 1:51-52, NRSV)
[1] Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (Free Movement of New Women). It is a women’s movement for the liberation of women through participation in the national liberation. When Martial Law was declared , MAKIBAKA went underground.
[2] http://www.bantayog.org/barros-maria-lorena-lorie-m/
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/20/down-girl-kate-manne-review
[4] https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/24/18/duterte-i-believe-in-women
[5] https://www.rappler.com/nation/195924-hrw-duterte-order-shoot-women-vagina-violates-international-humanitarian-law
[6] https://www.rappler.com/nation/210792-duterte-many-rape-cases-davao-beautiful-women
[7] https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/inside-track/159733-duterte-jokes-humor-fragrant-filipinas-ugly-yolanda-victims
[8] https://politics.com.ph/did-young-duterte-finger-a-maid/
[9] https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/69323
[10] https://www.rappler.com/nation/175687-duterte-rape-joke-speech-diplomats-congratulate
[11] https://twitter.com/rapplerdotcom/status/1003284014407475200?lang=en
Association of Women in Theology (AWIT) 