Far from being “doomed,” as Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte said on social media, the #BabaeAko movement co-founded by veteran journalist Inday Espina Varona and others has gained international recognition.
TIME Magazine posted last June 30 its “fourth annual roundup of the most influential people on the Internet.” The unranked list included mega-celebrities such as Korean boy band BTS, performers Rihanna and Kanye West, and US President Donald Trump.
TIME said they “evaluated contenders by looking at their global impact on social media and their overall ability to drive news.”
Writing for the publication, Naina Bajekal said, “Since taking office in June 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, 73, has developed a reputation for rape jokes and sexist comments.”
“But on May 20, a few days after he stated that a woman should not be the next chief justice, a dozen women—from activists to artists—decided they’d had enough. Under the hashtag #BabaeAko (I Am Woman), they uploaded videos calling out sexism in the Duterte administration.”
Mayor Sara posted on her Instagram account last week, “This is the first time I will say it out loud and I hate to admit it because I love my two brothers too much but yes I am the favorite child, so that #BabaeAko campaign is doomed.”
She explained “What [President Duterte] doesn’t like lies not in the gender, but in the character, he has no respect for weakness. And many women and some men are known to be damsels in distress, that #BabaeAko included,” she added.
Mayor Sara’s comments are problematic because she is a woman herself. She did not elaborate so we wonder where she’s coming from. She herself has gained from the global feminist movement that gave women the right to suffrage and run for political office. If women did not fight for their fundamental rights against patriarchal society over many decades, she would not be mayor now.
So the President, she says, was referring to character, to the flaw of ‘weakness’? That would be an individual matter. Not all women are weak. Vice President Leni Robredo, Senator Leila de Lima, former Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, and other women in the political opposition are not weak, far from it.
Why generalize by bashing the entire movement? Why say that ‘many’ women are “damsels in distress”—what’s the basis? How is the movement itself a “damsel in distress,” especially after seeing what it has achieved, among them a world-wide shout-out by a most prestigious and influential publication?
But then Mayor Sara’s words are a defense of the President’s sexist attitudes and pronouncements. That is understandable. He’s her father, after all. He created their family political dynasty that has placed them in power in Davao City for decades, and now the country. She is where she is because of him. And loyalty to family above all else is a Filipino trait ingrained in the culture.
Contrary to what Mayor Sara believes, the #BabaeAko movement is stronger than this present administration can contemplate. It comprises Filipino women standing against the excesses and abuses of those in power. It is composed of mothers fighting for their children not to be murdered in the drug war. It is made up of lesbians and transwomen struggling for their humanity to be recognized. It is participated in by women from the marginalized sectors who want better opportunities for education and livelihood. It is supported by men who are feminists, men who are allies of women in their journey towards true equality.
Many pro-Duterte supporters and anti-feminists whine that people who oppose this government’s excesses are “paid”—bayaran. #BabaeAko is not a platform of paid actors. It is composed of people who volunteer their time, labor, and resources to organize marches and rallies. These are people who have a sincere desire for positive change in our society and refuse to remain keyboard warriors.
As a woman who is not weak nor a damsel in distress, I am proud to count myself among them. #BabaeAko!
Dr. Ortuoste, a writer and researcher, has a PhD in Communication. FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO