Suffragettes and commanders
Suffragettes and commanders
Posted 01:48am (Mla time) Mar 11, 2005
By Michael L. Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the March 11, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
LAST Wednesday, I began writing about our heroines who so often are made invisible in our textbooks, mass media and cinema. I referred to the 20 young women of Malolos and the women who fought in the revolution against Spain and, later, resisted the American occupation.
Today's column takes us into the 20th century and the rise of feminism in the Philippines. After all, we're supposed to be marking the Filipino Feminist Centennial this year, marked by the establishment of the Asociacion Feminista de Filipinas on June 30, 1905. One could argue, of course, that even the Katipuneras were feminists but the establishment of the Asociacion Feminista meant a specific focus on women's rights for itself, rather than in relation to a broader political struggle.
After the Asociacion Feminista was established, there were other women's organizations that followed, from the National Federation of Women's Clubs to the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. any were patterned after American groups, mainly involved in civic work but with women's rights on their agenda.
More than the right to vote
Even during the Spanish occupation, many women had already begun working outside their homes, as is well described in Maria Luisa Camagay's "Working Class Women in the 19th Century," but when the Americans annexed the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century, women's participation in public life was still severely limited. We tend to think of these early feminists mainly as suffragettes and forget they also had to fight for the right to own property, to run for public office, maternal leave. The fight for women's rights was an uphill one, involving many years of lobbying; the right to vote didn't come until 1937.
Among the names we hear most often from among the early feminists were Concepcion Felix, Pura Villanueva Kalaw, Librada Avelino, Rosa Sevilla Alvero, Natividad Almeda, Encarnacion Alzona, Maria Paz Mendoza Guazon, Josefa Llanes Escoda, Pilar Hidalgo Lim, Josefa Jara Martinez, Sofia Reyes de Veyra, Trinidad Legarda, Paz Policarpio Mendez, Francisca Tirona Benitez, Maria Manzano, Tarhata Kiram, Geronima Pecson and Minerva Guysako Laudico.
Many of these women were from the elite but there were also notable exceptions such as Concepcion Felix, born to working-class parents in Tondo, Manila. I suspect, too, there were many working-class women involved in broader political struggles. A radical Left had emerged during the American occupation, with very active Communist and Socialist parties that had large followings among peasants and workers. Unfortunately, much too little has been written about the Left during the American colonial period, and certainly much less about the women in the labor and peasant movements.
Commanders
The Left was to play a key role in resisting the Japanese during World War II. The Hukbalahap was organized by the Communist Party and its soldiers recruited mainly from peasants. (Hukbalahap originally meant Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon, or People's Army Against the Japanese; after the war, it became the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan, or the People's Liberation Army, waging guerrilla war against the government.)
One of the legendary Hukbalahap leaders was Felipa Culala, better known as Commander Dayang Dayang. She led the first ambush on Japanese troops and eventually formed her own irregular Hukbalahap unit. Sadly, she was executed by her fellow guerrillas in 1943 following accusations of financial opportunism.
Maria Vina Lanzona has written about the involvement of other women in the Hukbalahap. She notes that there were less than 10 women military commanders, the most famous one being Remedios Gomez, or Ka Liwayway, who stayed with the Huks after the war, was arrested and imprisoned for several years before being acquitted.
Besides the women in Hukbalahap, there were many other women who participated in the underground. One example I thought worth citing was Maria Ylagan Orosa, after whom a Malate street is named. A pharmacy graduate, she went into food chemistry and was known for introducing all kinds of food preservation techniques. One of her inventions was "Magic Food," which used soybeans to produce a high-protein food. She was able to get this food into the Japanese interment camps in Manila, Tarlac and Pampanga. It turns out Orosa was a captain in the Marking Guerrilla group. When the Americans began their air bombing Manila to "liberate" us in February 1943, she refused to take refuge. She was hit by shrapnel and died, at age 50, from her wounds.
Martial law
Although the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship is fairly recent in our history, there's still far too little written up about the underground during that period. One reason may be that much of the anti-dictatorship struggle was led mainly by the Left, particularly the National Democratic Front, the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army (NPA), groups considered "terrorist" today.
There were many of these women, I can tell you, from all walks of life and of all ages. I remember several Tandang Sora types, who would allow their homes to be used for meetings. I also knew two silver-headed “lola” [grandmothers] who would chauffeur underground activists around, soldiers at checkpoints waving them through with the most courteous of smiles.
With time, these courageous women's stories will be told but this early, we should at least remember the martyrs from that dark period. There was Liliosa Hilao, the first woman to be killed during martial law. A student activist, she was picked up by the military in April 1973 and tortured before muriatic acid was poured down her throat to make her death look like a suicide. Her death spurred many Filipinos to sympathize with the underground, and helped to create a human rights movement that remains active today.
Asuncion David Maramba has a good biography of Lorena Barros in "Six Young Filipino Martyrs." Barros was doing anthropology at the University of the Philippines but took to the hills to join the NPA, where she became known for her poems. Barros was killed in an encounter with the military in 1975. One of Barros' contemporaries, Purificacion Pedro, was executed by the military for organizing peasants.
I don't want to create the impression that armed struggle was the only pathway for our heroines. Filipina valor took many forms, from the nuns who would form human shields to protect ralliers, to the “doktora” [women doctors] who chose to serve in the most remote rural areas even as their classmates left for greener pastures in the United States.
Then, too, there were the largely women-led small newspapers and magazines that dared to report the truth, what Marcos contemptuously referred to as the mosquito press. I still remember the no-holds barred articles of Ceres Doyo, for example. The best known "mosquito" was Eggy Apostol, whose Mr. & Ms and, later, the Inquirer, proved that mosquitoes could be truly vexing to the most formidable of foes. Is it coincidental that only female mosquitoes bite?
Posted 01:48am (Mla time) Mar 11, 2005
By Michael L. Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the March 11, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
LAST Wednesday, I began writing about our heroines who so often are made invisible in our textbooks, mass media and cinema. I referred to the 20 young women of Malolos and the women who fought in the revolution against Spain and, later, resisted the American occupation.
Today's column takes us into the 20th century and the rise of feminism in the Philippines. After all, we're supposed to be marking the Filipino Feminist Centennial this year, marked by the establishment of the Asociacion Feminista de Filipinas on June 30, 1905. One could argue, of course, that even the Katipuneras were feminists but the establishment of the Asociacion Feminista meant a specific focus on women's rights for itself, rather than in relation to a broader political struggle.
After the Asociacion Feminista was established, there were other women's organizations that followed, from the National Federation of Women's Clubs to the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. any were patterned after American groups, mainly involved in civic work but with women's rights on their agenda.
More than the right to vote
Even during the Spanish occupation, many women had already begun working outside their homes, as is well described in Maria Luisa Camagay's "Working Class Women in the 19th Century," but when the Americans annexed the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century, women's participation in public life was still severely limited. We tend to think of these early feminists mainly as suffragettes and forget they also had to fight for the right to own property, to run for public office, maternal leave. The fight for women's rights was an uphill one, involving many years of lobbying; the right to vote didn't come until 1937.
Among the names we hear most often from among the early feminists were Concepcion Felix, Pura Villanueva Kalaw, Librada Avelino, Rosa Sevilla Alvero, Natividad Almeda, Encarnacion Alzona, Maria Paz Mendoza Guazon, Josefa Llanes Escoda, Pilar Hidalgo Lim, Josefa Jara Martinez, Sofia Reyes de Veyra, Trinidad Legarda, Paz Policarpio Mendez, Francisca Tirona Benitez, Maria Manzano, Tarhata Kiram, Geronima Pecson and Minerva Guysako Laudico.
Many of these women were from the elite but there were also notable exceptions such as Concepcion Felix, born to working-class parents in Tondo, Manila. I suspect, too, there were many working-class women involved in broader political struggles. A radical Left had emerged during the American occupation, with very active Communist and Socialist parties that had large followings among peasants and workers. Unfortunately, much too little has been written about the Left during the American colonial period, and certainly much less about the women in the labor and peasant movements.
Commanders
The Left was to play a key role in resisting the Japanese during World War II. The Hukbalahap was organized by the Communist Party and its soldiers recruited mainly from peasants. (Hukbalahap originally meant Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon, or People's Army Against the Japanese; after the war, it became the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan, or the People's Liberation Army, waging guerrilla war against the government.)
One of the legendary Hukbalahap leaders was Felipa Culala, better known as Commander Dayang Dayang. She led the first ambush on Japanese troops and eventually formed her own irregular Hukbalahap unit. Sadly, she was executed by her fellow guerrillas in 1943 following accusations of financial opportunism.
Maria Vina Lanzona has written about the involvement of other women in the Hukbalahap. She notes that there were less than 10 women military commanders, the most famous one being Remedios Gomez, or Ka Liwayway, who stayed with the Huks after the war, was arrested and imprisoned for several years before being acquitted.
Besides the women in Hukbalahap, there were many other women who participated in the underground. One example I thought worth citing was Maria Ylagan Orosa, after whom a Malate street is named. A pharmacy graduate, she went into food chemistry and was known for introducing all kinds of food preservation techniques. One of her inventions was "Magic Food," which used soybeans to produce a high-protein food. She was able to get this food into the Japanese interment camps in Manila, Tarlac and Pampanga. It turns out Orosa was a captain in the Marking Guerrilla group. When the Americans began their air bombing Manila to "liberate" us in February 1943, she refused to take refuge. She was hit by shrapnel and died, at age 50, from her wounds.
Martial law
Although the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship is fairly recent in our history, there's still far too little written up about the underground during that period. One reason may be that much of the anti-dictatorship struggle was led mainly by the Left, particularly the National Democratic Front, the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army (NPA), groups considered "terrorist" today.
There were many of these women, I can tell you, from all walks of life and of all ages. I remember several Tandang Sora types, who would allow their homes to be used for meetings. I also knew two silver-headed “lola” [grandmothers] who would chauffeur underground activists around, soldiers at checkpoints waving them through with the most courteous of smiles.
With time, these courageous women's stories will be told but this early, we should at least remember the martyrs from that dark period. There was Liliosa Hilao, the first woman to be killed during martial law. A student activist, she was picked up by the military in April 1973 and tortured before muriatic acid was poured down her throat to make her death look like a suicide. Her death spurred many Filipinos to sympathize with the underground, and helped to create a human rights movement that remains active today.
Asuncion David Maramba has a good biography of Lorena Barros in "Six Young Filipino Martyrs." Barros was doing anthropology at the University of the Philippines but took to the hills to join the NPA, where she became known for her poems. Barros was killed in an encounter with the military in 1975. One of Barros' contemporaries, Purificacion Pedro, was executed by the military for organizing peasants.
I don't want to create the impression that armed struggle was the only pathway for our heroines. Filipina valor took many forms, from the nuns who would form human shields to protect ralliers, to the “doktora” [women doctors] who chose to serve in the most remote rural areas even as their classmates left for greener pastures in the United States.
Then, too, there were the largely women-led small newspapers and magazines that dared to report the truth, what Marcos contemptuously referred to as the mosquito press. I still remember the no-holds barred articles of Ceres Doyo, for example. The best known "mosquito" was Eggy Apostol, whose Mr. & Ms and, later, the Inquirer, proved that mosquitoes could be truly vexing to the most formidable of foes. Is it coincidental that only female mosquitoes bite?
posted by Dante at 1:48 AM
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