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Women die-in on Baguio streets

Due to Malacanang’s inaction to their sufferings

BAGUIO CITY (Oct. 28) — It was not a common rendition of their popular call “Kababaihan, wag palimita/ Tumungo sa lansangan, makibaka!”, but they lay on the streets anyway to air their political causes. Literally.

In a National Women’s Day of Action by the militant women’s group Gabriela, its local chapter Innabuyog performed a seven-minute “die-in” (or lying down on the streets as a form of protest) covering the whole pedestrian lane at lower Session Road. With placards denouncing violence, economic crisis, corruption, and lack of political will of the government to resolve these issues among others, the men and women who joined the die-in also shouted their calls to beat the impatient honk of vehicles caused by the mobilization.

“We performed this die-in to show that women and the people do not believe that the government is bankrupt. In fact, there are funds that just go to corrupt officials like Major General Carlos Garcia,” said Vernie Yocogan, Innabuyog secretary general.

Innabuyog also denounced Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s “false promises”, one of which is the creation of million jobs per year. Instead, “we are betrayed because she (Pres. GMA) has done nothing to save women workers and government employees from losing their jobs,” Yocogan added.

It is recalled that in her July state-of-the-nation address, Pres. GMA said she will downsize the bureaucracy, which critics said will result to “retrenchment” of about 400,000 government employees. As estimated, more than half of this figure are women.

Innabuyog also expressed alarm over the escalating violence on women and children as a result of increasing poverty. In this country, a woman, according to the Innabuyog study, is raped every 76 minutes and sexually harassed every 84 minutes, while a child is battered every three hours. More youth are forced into prostitution to pay for food and education, while mothers largely compose the 30,000 overseas Filipino workers who leave the country daily.

With these, Innabuyog challenged the president to heed the women’s demands. These include price control, scrap of economic policies that do not improve the people’s condition, food and job security, just wages and benefits for labor and services, suspension of corrupt government officials, and respect to the people.

The die-in was staged today in commemoration of triumphs gained and struggles pursued by Gabriela in its 20 years of existence, a mark begun by a mobilization of women from all walks of life on October 28, 1983 to express their disgust over the Marcos rule then. # Milena E. Roque for NORDIS

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