08/03/2026
WALANG LIBAN, LAHAT KASAMA: MILITANTENG BABAE, TAYO AY MAKIISA!
Today, March 8, we celebrate International Womenβs Day. More than a celebration, today also reminds us of the struggles women and the collective masses have yet to win against the patriarchal systems that continue to degrade and diminish them.
Recently, the UN reported how not even one out of the 195 recognized countries has achieved gender equality proving that the road towards a fair and just society is still far from reach. In the regional context, the women of Eastern Visayas are no strangers to these inequalities as they face their own set of problems. In 2025, 8 out of 10 peasants in the region do not own their land, and those that do are not owned by women. In the poorest of poor communities in the region, peasant women suffer more just because of the extreme economic situations in rural areas and the likelihood for women to be treated as unpaid laborers. It does not help that national issues such as the Rice Tarrification Law do not help but worsen the lives of peasant women and farmers.
Our present conditions are all the more reasons to fight back. It is through listening, speaking out, and fighting militantly for and with women do we see change. By knowing and understanding their struggles do we learn what to fight for and against. Take the casually violent sexualization of women, for example, where no Filipina escapes the passive objectification that the patriarchy subject them to. We have seen this through the disgusting remarks that Quezon City Rep. B**g Suntay made towards Anne Curtis, how he abuses legality to objectify Curtis into a mere object of fantasyβ to which he excused as an analogy. We must continue to call out these vilifying behaviors that continue to endanger Filipinas. At a time where public officials and other influential people are giving license to the objectification of women, this normalization further cements a culture that minimizes women to the male gaze β and it is something that we should vehemently condemn and collectively stand up against.
The condition of women all over is one that calls for a united front that will fight against the systems that continue to abuse, sexualize, and commodify women. There will be no true equality until all women are freed from the injustices brought by our current macho-feudal society. Being a woman is political, and so we struggle. We struggle because we are women, and we struggle because we are not just women.
ABANTE, BABAE! PALABAN MILITANTE!
KASARINLAN SA KASARIAN, IPAGLABAN!
