When the historical month of August opened, we had the exhibit with 100 Cebuana Trailblazers.
For National Heroes Week, I’d like to remind our young people about local female heroes to inspire us in these challenging times. Fortunately I have the Provincial Women’s Commission Heritage Cards to refer to.
First for those who dream to be successful lawyers, let me present the late Arbet Sta. Ana-Yongco. She is called in the PWC Heritage Cards “Champion of Alternative Lawyering.”
Her life was anchored on faith. In fact, when Arbet was murdered, she was praying. She one told us that when she retires from lawyering, she would manage a Christian nursery school.
Arbet was the coordinator of legal services in the Legal Alternatives for Women Center, Inc. Here she defended victims of violence. She defended many underprivileged women victims of domestic violence. She listened patiently to these women’s stories, at times late into the night. She provided them with refuge.
Then she fought for justice for the murdered Alona Bacolod. She fearlessly persisted in her defense even when other members of the Bacolod family were massacred.
When she realized that there was more to women’s victimization than the individual cases, Arbet campaigned for Abanse Pinay – the party-list group for women’s rights and welfare. Here, Arbet really used her various talents and skills to push for Abanse Pinay – lawyering, interacting with people, singing, dancing!
For the students of mass communications, let me bring in Inday Nita and Conching Briones. Inday Nita in the Heritage Cards was referred to as the “Heroine of the Airwaves.” Let me quote the description: “In the martial law period, she became the voice for victims of human rights abuses and, despite censorship, her programs covered such events as the anti-Marcos “Freedom March” in Cebu in 1980. She was arrested and detained at Camp Lapulapu and her radio station padlocked.
Then the masscom students should know about Conching Briones – Concepcion Gantuangco-Briones. Her concern for media workers caused her to be one of those who took the initiative in the establishment of the Cebu Newspaper Workers Foundation (Cenewof) to “enhance the standards of journalism, promote professionalism and ensure the welfare of workers in the newspaper industry.” Having been a serious observer of events in Cebu, she wrote two books, City of Cebu and Life in Old Parian.
For those in the management cluster, I would like our students to be acquainted with Pomposa Cirilo-Nator, Maria Fadullon Rallos and Benigna Cui.
Iya Posang started by selling “tilad” (betel nuts for chewing) and snack food in cockpits and bowling alleys. Then she set up a little store. Since she only had primary education, she learned to bake on her own by experimenting. These later gave rise to La Suerte Restaurant and Bakery. Opinion shapers gathered here long before breakfast clubs became in fashion. After the destruction caused by the war, the widowed Osang rebuilt the bakeshop and restaurant.
Maria Fadullon Rallos was the wife of the mayor of Cebu. Upon her husband’s death, “she remained an energetic and enterprising woman. She traded in rootcrops, owned and operated at one time Teatro Junquera, Cebu’s first and premier theatre-cum-cinema; owned the city’s first sinamay store; and constructed houses for rent, originating the “bamboo chalet” type of housing popular with the Americans in the 1900s.”
Since she was concerned about women and their education and development, Nyora Inday wrote an extraordinary book with Cebuano recipes and a guide not only for cooking but also on home management and community involvement.
On the other hand, Benigna Cui was “the donor and first administrator of the Hospicio de San Jose, the first and only home for the aged in the Philippines totally funded by a private endowment.”
Felicidad Climaco, named “Pioneering Cebuana Activist,” and Ines S. Villa-Gonzalez, “Writer/Women’s Suffrage Advocate,” worked for the woman’s vote. When they had the right, they claimed it by running for public office.
Felicidad Climaco, who had relatives in the Philippine revolution, fought in Cebu; she supported our local revolutionaries by providing them with supplies, such as food and clothing.
She attended rallies not only for the women’s vote but also for Philippine independence. She was the only woman speaker in a rally in Washington Park in 1933 in support of the independence bill, the Hare Hawes Cutting Bill.
Ines S. Villa was a very accomplished woman. A sociologist and writer, she won the Premio Zobel for her Filipinas en el Camino de la Cultura, published in 1932.
As an educator, she prepared Philippine Epic of Democracy. Here, she draws attention to women’s dedication to worthwhile efforts in various fields of endeavor. She asserted that women can be an asset in building democracy for the nation.
Last week I asked my Asian History students to reflect on his question: What does society stand to lose if we close certain fields to females?