Poe tells govt, other sectors to work together to end discrimination

Sen. Grace Poe during a joint hearing at the Senate. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO / RYAN LEAGOGO

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Grace Poe is urging the government and other concerned sectors to work together to end discrimination against women.

Poe made the call as she lamented the challenges women face in asserting their leadership roles in society.

“To bring on change, we need inspiring individuals, but we also need a grassroots movement. To eliminate discrimination, efforts must be exerted by government, non-government organizations, the private sector, so that it is a whole-of-society approach,” Poe said during the “Women Today: Innovators and Agents of Future” forum.

“Tayong mga kababaihan [We women] should ensure that our organizations and workplaces are safe and empowering for women,” she added.

Poe is the author of Senate Bill 315 or the Anti-Discrimination Bill, which prohibits “discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, religion or belief, sex or gender or sexual orientation, language, disability, or educational attainment in schools and in places of work.”

The bill was certified as urgent by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Poe said women should be “economically empowered,” and should have access to education and capital.

“Without the financial means to receive proper education, generations after generations would be prevented from achieving social mobility and attaining equal opportunities,”  she said.

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During the forum, Poe also said that women can accomplish anything if they were only given the opportunity to realize their full potential.

“Ang ibig ko lang pong sabihin, higit pa ang ating magagawa kung bibigyan tayo ng oportunidad para tumulong sa pagpapaunlad at pagsasaayos ng ating bayan at lipunan,” she pointed out,

(What I mean is, we can do more if we are given the opportunity to help in building and shaping our nation and society.)

Poe then cited Olympic silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz and Girls Will Code founder Isabel Sieh as examples of Filipinas with “brains and brawns.”

Diaz will represent the country anew in the Southeast Asian Games to be hosted by the Philippines this November.

“Sino ang ating champion na weightlifter? Hindi lalaki, kundi babae [Not man but a woman]. Si Hidilyn Diaz, when she started, she didn’t have any support. She just used whatever she had around the house, cans and cement, and that’s what she used to train herself to become a weightlifter,” the senator said.

“It was a hard climb…but she made it. She won as the first Filipino woman to win an Olympic medal of any color,” she added.

Sieh, meanwhile, learned computer languages at a very young age of 10.

“Her passion for coding led her to start Girls Will Code. Their mission is to provide activities that close the gender gap in tech, by encouraging young girls to develop better technological skills and solutions,” Poe said.

Edited by JPV