March vs VAW, freebies mark Women’s Day

STOPPING MISOGYNY Women led by activist Mae Paner and Sr. Mary John Mananzan (back row, fourth from left) strike a pose during Wednesday’s press conference on International Women’s Day. Spearheaded by a coalition of leaders of various women’s organization, the United Women’s Action Against Misogyny will march on Rizal Park on Friday to protest what it describes as abuses against women under the Duterte administration. —EARVIN PERIAS

Women’s groups all over the country are set to come together on Friday, International Women’s Day, to protest the “worsening violence against women (VAW)” under the administration of President Duterte.

“President Duterte has been all out in his attack on women … in his remarks that encourage sexual violence against women and which debase women’s (role) in the family, community and society,” said Jean Enriquez, executive director of Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific.

The coalition, which has at least 5,000 members, will take their grievances to the streets to “assert hard-won victories amid fascism.”

Marching under the theme “Tama Na, Sulong Kababaihan,” the women will assemble at Kilometer Zero near Rizal Park and move toward the La Madre Filipina monument in the park, between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Under the banner of #EveryWoman and #BabaeAko, women wearing white, lavender or purple, will gather at 4 p.m. at Rizal Park (beside the Rizal monument), to celebrate the gains of the women’s movement and call out the abuses that many women still experience.

In a press briefing on Wednesday morning, Enriquez, a coordinator of the World March of Women, together with representatives from the church and academe Sr. Mary John Mananzan, Gabriela, Women’s Legal and Human Rights, Sentro, Lilak, Center for Migrants Advocacy and Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan, said Filipino women have suffered attacks from different fronts since Mr. Duterte assumed office in 2016.

Challenge to authoritarianism

The abuses, they said, came from the imposition of martial law in Mindanao and the extrajudicial killings amid the war on drugs.

“The only way to challenge authoritarianism is by uniting. We cannot keep ourselves divided by political ideologies,” Enriquez said.

President Duterte has been criticized widely for his remarks that degrade women, starting with his campaign joke on an Australian missionary gangraped and killed in a prison riot in Davao, and culminating with a confession that he had sexually abused their domestic help twice.

As part of the Women’s Day celebration, the Intramuros Administration announced free admission to all women visitors to Fort Santiago, Casa Manila Museum and Baluarte de San Diego on March 8.

The National Parks Development Committee and the Iranian Embassy are hosting a free screening of the award-winning Iranian documentary “Sefr ta Sakkou” (Zero to Podium) at the Rizal Park Open-Air Auditorium this Sunday at 7 p.m.

Free movies will also be sponsored by Instituto Cervantes on March 9, 16, 23 and 30 at Casa Azul, San Luis Complex. —With a report from Jerome Aning