PHILIPPINES Filipinas fight multiform oppression THE WOMEN'S movement in the Philippines has started to take shape only during the past five years despite the fact that various women's groups emerged earlier - in the 1970s. The movement crystallized in response to the political and economic crises and their effects parti-. cularly on women, more than around feminist issues themselves. The dire effects of the worsening conditions on women and children pushed the women to organize themselves within the context of these conditions. For instance, a group like the Concerned Women of the Philippines, formed in 1978, brought women together on the issue of rampant fraud in the first parliamentary elections. SONIA RUPON
As the political crisis continued and exploded with the murder of the opposition leader Benigno Aquino in August 1983, the women's movement developed and became more rooted An unprecedented number of women, side by side with other mass organizations, joined the "parliament of the streets" to manifest their anger at the Marcos regime. Two months after the assassination, on October 28, 1983, women representing various groups launched an all-women's protest rally against the repressive nature of the regime and its policies of torture and murder to silence dissent. Women's Update [review produced by the GABRIELA women's organization] reported a participation of 10,000 women at this rally.
Four months later, women's groups with a militant political orientation emerged. Women for the Ouster of Marcos and Boycott (WOMB) began as a forum for women who opted for a boycott of the Batasang Pambansa (the parliament) elections in 1984. Samahan ng Malayang Kababaihang Nagkakaisa (SAMAKANA — Organization of Free and United Women) started with a group of housewives in a squatters' community and based itself in poor urban communities. Now, after two years, the organization boasts of 2,400 members in its 30 chapters and held a national congress recently with the aim of promoting the understanding of the woman question in the context of Philippine social realities.
In March 1984, GABRIELA, coalition of politically active women's _ groups was formed. Named after a historical woman fighter against Spanish colonization, the name also signifies the General Assembly
Binding Women for Reforms. Integrity, Equality, Leadership and Action. Its organizers include diverse groups like SAMAKANA WOMEN (media) CAP (artists), NOWRP and KAMAY (religious groups), KMK (workers) and research groups like PILIPINA. Along with other militant mass organisations it has played a role in big mobilizations like labor rallies and peasant marches. Using the issues of reproductive rights and health and safety, it was an active participant in the campaign to dismantle the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. Last year, on October 28, after a week-long schedule of discussions and activities exploring women's issues and their relation to the socioeconomic-political conditions in the Philippines, GABRIELA led a march of 2,000 women. This day has now been proclaimed as the Filipino women's Day of Protest, commemorating the first big women's rally after Aquino's death. Women and unions
Two organizations of women workers — the Kilusan ng mga Manggagawang Kababaihan (KMK - Movement of Women Workers) and the Makabayang Kababaihan ng Masa (MAKAMASA - Nationalist women of The Masses) were the outgrowth of the attention focused on women workers in 1984 and 1985. Factory strikes in which women participated were numerous despite military and police repression at the picket line. In the Bataan Export Processing Zone (BEPZ), where 80 per cent of the workers are young women between the ages of 15 and 22 and where strikes are illegal and unionizaInternational Viewpoint 10 March 1986
tion difficult, women continue to demand better wages and working conditions.
In the BEPZ factories, textiles and garments, electronics, toys, sports equipment and leather goods are produced. Statistics for 1983 show that the garments and electronics industries alone employ 752,700 women, a tenth of the total number of women employed in that year. It is also in these two sectors that 1984 earnings were respectively the lowest and second lowest in Asia - 30 cents per hour in electronics, and 17 cents per hour in garment.
Along with very low wages, the women suffer from inhuman treatment and appalling working conditions. In the electronics industry for instance, women are forced to work in an assembly line eight hours or more a day in rhythm with the machines. They are not allowed to talk and are forced to meet high quotas. The industry is a highly dangerous one because of the hazards of exposure to chemical substances, and cancer cases have already been reported. On the average, workers last only for three years; they complain of dizziness, poor vision, mental strain. They are regarded as too old and are discarded to make way for younger and faster workers.
Normal factory rights such as sick leave, vacation and maternity benefits do not exist. This is part and parcel of the investment package promoted by the government to persuade multinational companies to invest in the zone.
Job security and promotions are not assured as women are never hired on a permanent basis, and supervisory positions are always given to men even in female-dominated industries. To even keep their jobs, women have to face sexual harrassment by their male supervisors - the lay-down or lay-off threat.
Workers trying to organize union activities within the zone are intimidated and threatened with job suspensions and even physical violence and murder. Because of these repressive measures it has not been easy to attract women workers to the trade union. The pressures of the other tasks they have to deal with at home also act as a deterrent. Despite these constraints, however, one still hears of women leading militant unions and participating in strikes. In some regions in the country women workers are beginning to study the principles of unionism, and certain studies show that exposure to workers' education focusing on women workers' problems have encouraged women workers to be more active and militant. Interviews with women workers have also shown militant responses like the belief that
International Viewpoint 10 March 1986 the strike is the main weapon to force management to give in, and that slowing down can alleviate difficult work conditions. Women strike
The public-school teachers' mass walkouts in September of last year were also significant. Public school teachers have been among the most poorly paid public servants and protest from this sector was to be expected. On the primary and secondary levels 85per percent of teachers, and 53 per cent of the teachers on the tertiary level, are women. They complain of overwork — they are not only assigned oversized classes but are given many other tasks not related to teaching such as watching polls during elections and attending government rallies. And because of their low pay, which averages 1,700 pesos or 100 US dollars a month, many are forced to sell all sorts of goods to their students to augment their income. Their demands — primarily an increase in wages to 3,000 pesos - were however met with the suspension of their leaders from work and intimidation. For many of these teachers the only way to improve their economic condition has been to emigrate and suffer the consequences of landing in domestic work in exchange for a salary they would never be able to earn in their own country.
Rural women, who comprise 59 per cent of the female population (1984 statistics), are less employed on a wage basis than their urban counterparts. They do both farming and nonfarming jobs, but most numerous among them are the landless rural poor who work on other people's land or on plantations, preparing the ground, weeding and planting. The official wages for agricultural workers - 34.42 pesos a day for plantations and 25.90 pesos for nonplantations - places their earnings far below the poverty threshold estimated by the World Bank at 2613.12 pesos a month. What is more, this wage scale is usually not implemented; in reality these workers earn much less and usually are able to work only three to six months of the year. Poor as the pay is, however, many rural women are haunted by the fear of displacement from these jobs and the loss of this income supplementing what their husbands and children earn. In the present crisis in agriculture in the Philippines - the mechanization of farming and the conversion of many rice lands into residential and commercial areas - women and children are of course the first to go. When there is no work in the fields, women resort to street vending or doing the laundry for other households.
There is also now a growing number of women who work at home doing sewing and embroidery and producing handicrafts. This is an even more exploitative situation for those at the bottom of the subcontracting scheme. To illustrate, a baby dress sewn by a village worker would sell for 15 US dollars in a department store in the United States while the worker was paid less than ten cents for it! Prostitution
Extreme poverty and the unavailability of jobs have compelled women to go into prostitution. There has always been prostitution particularly in the red-light district and the area surrounding US military bases, but the problem has now reached acute proportions. There are 100,000 prostitutes in Metro-Manila alone, and around the bases there are another 16,000. Child prostitution has also increased these past few years. Studies point to around 3,000 child prostitutes in Metro-Manila, ranging in age from 7 to 15. These women and children usually come from lowincome families, peasant and fishing families, slum dwellers and migrants from the provinces. Parents are said to have sold off their children for lack of any alternative to survive.
The government not only tolerates, but has promoted the institutionalization of prostitution. Rest and recreation centers, which include a network of clubs, restaurants, hotels, sauna baths, massage clinics and other places of entertainment, have been legalized in keeping with government policy to make the most of its tourism industry. Tourism is the third largest source of foreign exchange, which the government banks on to ease the payment of its debts.
One form of prostitution that has received much official support is the tours. Groups of Japanese as well as Europeans, Australians and Americans take advantage of these holiday package tours, which include everything from sight-seeing to women. Militant protests by concerned women, such as the one held on the occasion of the Japanese prime minister's visit to Manila, have reduced the number of foreign visitors for some time, thus hitting the profits of this notorious network. The industry goes on nonetheless - with attempts to lessen publicity and change its form.
Part of the flesh trade is the export of women to other countries. Migrant workers, promised good jobs, have
in many instances ended up as prostitutes. With retreat cut off - their passports are often kept by the agents who recruited them - they are forced into topless dancing, striptease and prostitution.
A more recent but equally alarming phenomenon is that of the mail-order brides. Although it started as a fad, it has now developed into big business, in which legitimate companies, notably in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, are engaged in marrying off young Asian women to Western men. Catalogues with pictures and descriptions of the women are sent out to a club member who can pick the woman he wants. The Asian women are advertised as "meek, docile, submissive, submissive. home-orientated and home-orientated and have tremendous capacities in bed," in contrast to assertive and "liberated" Western women. Women have availed themselves of this means of escaping from their poverty and of being able to send money back home to their families. And since marriage is highly valued by Philippine society, 85 per cent Catholic, it is seen as an honorable thing to do. Yet it sometimes means a lifetime of problems. Culture shock and loneliness are usual results. Some marriages do work out, but in other cases such marriages are equivalent to sex slavery.
The problems that Filipino women face today are gigantic and complex. They have their roots in the historical past, the incursion of various capitalistic developments into Filipino life, and the dimensions of these problems somehow reflect the proportions of the present crisis. It is a good sign that the women's movement is becoming more militant.
Women have dared to become more engaged in political issues and activities in different fields despite their burdens, made even harder by today's crisis. More women are also reportedly joining the New People's Army, the guerrilla forces in the countryside, and are leading workers' pickets and strikes. Many have had to pay for this political engagement. Sad and disgusting are the stories of women political detainees who have not only suffered the usual forms of torture of the regime but have also been subjected to rape, sexual humiliation and abuses by their captors.
The debates within the movement are, of course, understandable. The country is presently in a situation where political changes can take place unexpectedly. This can cause confusion and the need for choices to be made. Nonetheless, while groups may differ in their approaches, the fact that all groups are moving within their various capacities is a healthy and positive sign for the movement. 22