Valle: Women's emancipation is NOT served on a silver platter
THIS one particular day was really crazy, because it seemed like people’s behavior got in the way. Took a jeepney ride one afternoon only to be dismayed at the way the driver took time to “bash” some women he did not even know whom he just saw standing by the side walk.
I was fuming mad...
Valle: The other side of Human Rights
AS I was about to put into writing what I have been exposed to for some days now, I begin to see the complexity of something that I have always thought to be universal and simple. Human Rights, according to the 'book' on universal principles, are simply that which each and every human entity...
Valle: Living One day at a time
SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD “Rickilyn” smile like everything in the world is just fine. Her eyes twinkles when she talks and if one only hears her voice and not see her whole body, one would be led to think the speaker is another regular girl. Cheerful as her voice may suggest, the sight of Rickilyn’s...
Valle: A febrile earth
FEELS like a smoldering blaze but no fire was on sight the day different sectors commemorated mother Earth’s day. The heat was intense, especially among a number of environment groups mounting a caravan towards Pantukan, Compostela Valley, where several big foreign mining companies have been...
An expedition to the Inner Spirit
MATI CITY -- It’s the first time that I encountered “Perry” the Platypus, the only mammal existing in Australia, and it was through Jaethan Aldridge “Jaeger” Nombrado and his painting. At eight years of age, this little bubbly boy has such big concerns that even in his playful strokes on the...
Valle: 'Selda 9'
“CHRISTIE,” the inmate who was about to deliver her baby, was feeling increasingly gripped with labor pains. There was no doctor, nor midwife, or even a “hilot” (midwife) to help the beleaguered woman in bringing out her offspring to the world. But there was no more room for doubt or delay. The...
Valle: The little children by the sea
I WATCHED as two kids were trying to maneuver the little yellow boat back to the shore with a paddle against the tiny waves that gently break on the white sand. The sea breeze felt warm against my skin, almost like caressing away the pain I have been nursing inside of me.
It felt like “...
Valle: Sanctuary no more
WHEN I sent a private message to a once elected public official on Facebook asking him about the state of the PAWIKAN Sanctuary, I got a curt two-word reply "wala na" (no more). I was taken aback, offended, if you may. I was asking him because years before, he used to be the "godfather" of the...
Valle: It's still the world of 'macho' ideas
"CRIED a river", shares a lady friend whose hubby was a former OFW. But that was only for a day, she says, when she was feeling betrayed so much that she wanted to take revenge. She then said, no use making a big thing about it, but still she persisted and tried to drive home the point to her...
Valle: OPI killing women softly
EVEN before I set foot at the grocery store, I immediately knew that the P1,000 intended to buy some basic goods like sugar, rice, eggs, cooking oil, to name a few would not anymore fill up a small size 'sando' bag. This budget is supposed to serve at least the five days' needs of the family.
Valle: Women inmates
IF WOMEN are being abused when they are relatively free, how much more if they are behind steel bars?
It’s no secret that the situation of prisoners here in our country and all over the world is something that can be described as unfit for humans. And yet, this kind of treatment meted on...
Valle: Women in sex trade
THEY can be found anywhere. They looked just like every girl or woman casually walking along the streets, in malls, in schools, in churches and in every nook and cranny.
Valle: The woman question
MY son came up to me and asked me point blank if I am for abortion. Without any hesitation I said of course I am NOT for abortion. I then asked him why he wanted to know.
He said he knew that I am an advocate of Reproductive Health (RH), and then he said that he was rather confused with...
Avellanosa-Valle: 'Dangerous collective memory' of the Babaylan persists
IT FEELS good to know that most people among countries in this whole beautiful planet that we have not only recognized our basic birth rights as women, but that among us who composed half of the world's population have already come to acknowledge the healing powers that our mothers and the great...
Valle: Constantly under threat
THERE was no heavy rain the night before, only some drizzle here and there. There were even portions in the city where no sign of downpour was evident, as the streets remained dry and dusty. That is why it was confounding to find Talomo river swelling and threatening communities living along the...
Valle: It's when the 'good' people do nothing
WE, PARENTS tend to overlook something that really matter to our children. More often, we magnify on the goals that we have for them, for the family, and although it is true that we only wanted the “best” that we can offer for their future, we forgot that our children are living, breathing human...
Valle: ‘Monday sickness’
TEACHING can be tough. After a few months into the trade, I have initially tasted the bitter-sweet and trying moments that has filled my thoughts for some time already. It’s not that my “baptism of fire” has been done already. I realize that it is only starting to really sink in. Once a teacher...
Valle: Losing one great woman advocate of alternative healing
SHE taught me how to appreciate and actually learn to adapt to a revolutionary and holistic way of healing. Known to many among most workers of non-government organizations in the 80s as Inday, Rebecca Mao have succumbed to lung cancer, but her memory and her passion in pursuing alternative...
Valle: Getting into a mentor’s lair
IT IS one thing to write about people’s lives and quite another to get yourself immersed in the mainstream of their world view. Once one gets integrated into their system that is the time that one can say, “yeks, lisud man diay!” (It’s not easy!)
Recently, I am “into” the making of what...
Valle: A People Enraged
IT WAS difficult to walk with a multitude whose hearts are bleeding and grieving under the scorching heat of the sun. One needs to move in step, to move simultaneous with every step of thousands rhythmically marching, as if to the beating of unseen and unheard drum in their minds. The beat was...
Valle: Good Morning Teacher
THE Department of Education's attempt at highlighting this noble profession but dismally paid job is a lame attempt at giving teachers a boost, considering the difficult times they have to put up with just doing their duties. Not to mention the risk they have to take during elections when the...
Valle: A woman's offspring is her strength
THE opposite sex can react differently in a given situation. A man may respond to an outside stimuli with strong emotions, often times with the use of force and loud expressions of anger or surprise. Often than not, a woman's initial reaction would be to distance herself and briefly assess the...
Valle: Pogs speaking up for women
FIGURATIVELY speaking, sitting in the middle of a throng of storks could have one either of the two possibilities: either one gets overwhelmed with so much fluffiness as storks are made of immaculately white feathers especially when it starts to cluck it could get heavenly; or one would...
Valle: A woman against all odds
IT'S quite perplexing to see women "on the other side of the fence" surviving the most daunting of situations and staying strong and resilient at their best. How was it possible for them to exist in a society where the "powers" that want them banished are everywhere, whichever way they turn?...
Valle: Sona 2011 - A message of hope for the mothers of every household?
YOU can't win them all, as the saying goes. But the last Sona delivered by President P-Noy sounds like what it wants to achieve: a symbol of hope that every Filipino wants to hold on to in these times of global crises, never mind the "wang-wang" (he has yet to get over it). Albeit grudgingly,...
