Statement of the Partido Lakas ng Masa

Win the fight for the passage of the RH Bill,

and continue the struggle for genuine gender equality,

economic and social justice!

It’s been 100 years since the first International Women’s Day march in 1911. While women have won the right to certain political freedoms such as the right to vote and political representation, we are still struggling for genuine and substantive gender equality – which means economic equality and social justice.

Poverty today has a woman’s face: 6 out of every 10 poor people are women and in the Philippines the number of poor people and poor women has grown in the last two decades. The system of elite rule in the country is preventing women from accessing economic and social resources, rights, and justice.

We know that around 11 Filipino women die everyday due to preventable childbirth-related complications. These are primarily poor women. It is estimated that about 40 percent of pregnant women are anemic, with even higher levels of 50 percent and over in some provinces in Mindanao. The diet of pregnant women is grossly inadequate, increasing the risk of both maternal mortality and the delivery of low-birth weight infants, who are also at risk of dying within their first years or of becoming undernourished in their pre-school years.

Women continue to struggle against unemployment, with only 50% of all eligible women working (compared to 80% for men). As a result the number of Filipino women pushed to work overseas has been increasing because of lack of decent jobs in the country. In 2009, 71,000 Filipino women left the country to work as domestic helpers; they made up 21 percent of the newly-hired in the top 10 job categories abroad.

However, the average cash remittances of women is only 60 percent that of men. This is indicative of the status of women OFWs in lesser skilled and unprotected lower paying jobs, which are also vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking and abuse.

The trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation and forced labor has increased. Between 60,000 to 100,000 children and over 100,000 women are trafficked (internally and externally) annually. And although the number of cases filed for investigation by the Department of Justice has increased, there is no justice for these women victims. There have been only eight convictions of traffickers since 2003.

Media reports now also expose the fact that women OFWs are being used as drug couriers or mules by unscrupulous and extremely powerful criminal syndicates. These desperate women are also victims of corrupt law enforcement agencies who turn a blind eye to women being trafficked past airport and other security personnel.

Filipino women are facing increasing violence committed by government security forces, as seen in the recent cases involving a woman vendor that was raped by a police officer in a police station, of a child victim of sexual abuse and trafficking whose abuser the police chose to protect, and of women activists who continue to be threatened by the police for their political activities.

President Noynoy has pledged that his administration will fight corruption and alleviate poverty and that he supports women’s rights. But actions speak louder than words and so far there has been very little concrete action to follow through the government’s rhetoric.

On the contrary we have witnessed a great deal of backtracking on the president’s commitments, as seen by his back-tracking on the Reproductive Health Bill.  Although he made a verbal commitment to support the bill, he didn’t include it in the priority legislative agenda of his government. The Noynoy government’s economic policies based on Public-Private-Partnerships or PPP, instead of contributing to poverty reduction and job creation, will only deepen privatization of more public utilities and services, deregulation and contractualization and thus, increase women’s poverty.

Women are tired of waiting. We have been patient and have waited long enough. We are also unimpressed by sweet-talking presidents. We want results that move us forward towards genuine gender equality, economic and social justice, and we want them now.

We demand action, not words. We demand a program with measures that will redistribute wealth towards poor women and their families and communities.

Pass the RH Bill now! Increase funding for health services, especially reproductive health services!

Immediate moratorium on lay-offs! No to neoliberal economic policies, no to the public-private partnership policy! Stop contractualization and privatization!  A national public sector investment program for job creation in the Philippines! Provide all returning OFWs from the Middle East with employment in the Philippines!

Repeal the automatic debt appropriation law! Increase funding for social services, especially health and education! Recognize housework as productive work with appropriate monetary compensation!

Launch a nationwide campaign and education program against violence against women! No to the Visiting Forces Agreement!

Win the fight for the passage of the RH Bill! Continue the struggle for genuine gender equality – for our economic and social justice! Continue the struggle for our emancipation from elite rule!

Statement of the Partido Lakas ng Masa (Party of the Laboring Masses)

February 25, 2011

25 Years of Continuing Plunder and Oppression of the Masses

WHAT “EDSA REVOLUTION”?  There was no revolution on February 25, 1986. What happened was a people’s uprising that ousted the Marcos dictatorship, but was hijacked by a leadership composed of the elite – the capitalists, landlords, traditional politicians and clans which were also persecuted by the dictatorship. A revolution that could have resulted in a genuine change in society was derailed by these forces, which also got support from the United States government and other imperialist forces.

For 25 years, the nation was dominated by representatives of the ruling elite under four successive post-Edsa governments, which took turns in continuing the plunder and oppression of the masses.  The failure of the Edsa uprising in 1986 also intensified the crisis of the ruling system:

1.  We are witnessed now to the gross plunder of state resources by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. This takes the form of multimillion pesos of funds lining the pockets of top brasses of the AFP and their backers in Malacanang.  This is plunder allowed by the Cory Aquino government in order to appease and pacify the military; plunder which reached its peak under the previous Arroyo administration, and plunder which continues to this day.

2.  The corruption and injustices pervading the Supreme Court and the judiciaries.  Latest witness to this was Lauro Vizconde, whose eldest daughter was raped and killed together with his wife and another younger daughter. Vizconde recounted how the Supreme Court justices were bought with P50-million peso bribe in order to acquit the main suspect who belonged to a powerful and influential family.

3.  The failure of the government to mediate in the wanton escalation of prices of basic goods.  While the incidence of hunger and poverty continues to spread all over the country, the government of Noynoy Aquino has ordered the implementation of new rounds of fare increases, toll fees, gasoline prices and other basic food items.

4. The failure to implement even the basic land reform legislation certified 25 years ago by the Cory Aquino administration. The 6,500-hectare Hacienda Luisita, owned by the Aquino-Cojuangco clan, was able to circumvent the land reform law.  Until now, no justice has been given to the 14 peasants massacred by the military and hacienda goons during a strike in 2004 calling for the implementation of land reform in the hacienda.

The only thing different from the administration of Noynoy Aquino today and the previous regimes from Marcos to Arroyo is the opportunity for people to witness the various atrocities committed by state institutions in the last few years.  Various cases of plunder and corruption in institutions such as the AFP, the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan, the Land Transportation Office, and others, are now investigated on live television, as more and more “whistleblowers” and witnesses come out to expose the crimes.

However, the main concern of the people has always been the lack of concrete outcome of these proceedings. In the main, these investigations, which were mainly undertaken by Congress, was not aimed at punishing the guilty but merely as an “aid” to legislation.

Let the lesson of people’s power in Egypt and in many countries of the Middle East today be a guide to all of us.  The people should guard their actions from elite forces which are out to hijack the uprisings in order to perpetrate the ruling class – under new representatives – in power.  The unfinished revolution should be brought to the full conclusion by the people taking power in their own hands. #

Campaign information click here

A. Why the Partido Lakas ng Masa supports the “The Responsible

Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and

Development Act of 2011”

The Partido Lakas ng Masa stands for the promotion and advancement

of women and children’s health and the reproductive health and rights of women.

“The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and

Development Act of 2011”, contains important legislative measures, to

advance and promote women’s health and reproductive rights. This Act,

if passed, will especially benefit poor women who have to suffer the

consequences of unintended pregnancies, birth-related maternal deaths,

miscarriages and unsafe and dangerous abortion.

• 54% of all pregnancies in the Philippines are unintended,
• In 2008, there were 1.9 million unintended pregnancies,
• 560,000 of these pregnancies ended in induced abortions,
• 90,000 women were hospitalized because of abortion complications.
• 1000 died from abortion complications,
• 1,600 more died from births and miscarriages related to unwanted pregnancies,
• Poor women and families have least access to family planning services,
• 54% of women who do not use any method or form of contraception are poor.[1]

B. What is “The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health,

and Population and Development Act of 2011”?

Under the Act:

• Modern family planning methods will be provided in all accredited

• For poor women this will be free and fully subsidized by PhilHealth and

• Family planning supplies and products shall be included in the regular

• LGUs will provide poor families preferential access to family planning services;

• The number of midwives and skilled attendance will be increased to achieve

• Emergency obstetric care will be upgraded and access improved for the

• Mobile Health Care Services will be improved and each congressional

• Reproductive health and sex education, including gender and

development and responsible relationships and parenthood topics, will be taught in

schools, by trained teachers through appropriate curricula, from Grade 5 to Fourth Year;

• Employers must respect the reproductive rights of the workforce and will

• Every individual’s right to information on the availability of reproductive

• Greater investment and prioritization of family planning and reproductive

C. The Act can save poor women and children’s lives

If the Act is passed and implemented it will save lives. If all women use

modern contraceptive methods, for example, it will:

• Reduce maternal death by 2,100 every year;

• There will be 800,000 less unplanned births;
• There will be 500,000 less induced abortions;
• There will be 200,000 less miscarriages.

This is why the Partido Lakas ng Masa supports the “The Responsible

Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development Act of 2011”.

We call on our members to join the campaign to support the Act, to organize

activities to inform and educate the communities and the barangay councils,

and to join the mobilizations organized by RHAN and other women’s networks,

to support the passing of the legislation in the Congress and the Senate. The

facts show that this is the truly moral and the correct thing to do.

[1] The data has been obtained from Likhaan’s Policy Brief. Web source  www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2009 “Meeting Women’s Contraceptive Needs in the Philippines”.