ARTIST and musician Gauss Obenza who hails from Davao first publicly performed her composition "Day, Asa Ka" during the June 24 National Women's Summit 2016 convened in Davao City by Gabriela, Gabriela Women's Party, Gabriela Youth and the Center for Women's Resources.
Translated from Cebuano, the song title which uses "Day" as an abbreviation of the common term of familiarity "Inday", could be taken as an inquiry about location or position (woman, where are you?), and also indicate interest in direction (woman, where are you going?).
The song was apropos for a summit that sought not only to look into the situation of women, but also to propose direction and priorities covering specific change areas by, for, and about women to the incoming Duterte administration.
I thought about Gauss's song again while watching the two inaugural ceremonies on June 30, for President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Vice-President Maria Leonor Gerona Robredo.
Victories highlighted by the day's events should not be dismissed merely because they are not consistent with one's political inclinations. For the first time in a series of 16 heads of government the country has a president who hails from Mindanao. For the first time in the Fifth Republic, the national leadership could be described, using the words of MindaNews, as the first geographically balanced government, where the south (Visayas or Mindanao) countervailed the north (Luzon). These are not trivial in a country that historically has been grappling with many forms of domination and inequality, and their resulting violence, neglect and suffering.
Where were the women in the early moments of the 16th administration? At the Rizal Ceremonial Hall in Malacañang, there were still more men than women in the rows reserved for former presidents, current heads of the legislative and judiciary, and the incoming members of the cabinet. The conundrum around having two families in attendance seemed to be resolved by having only all four children on stage as President Duterte took the oath.
On the platform were Inday Sara Duterte who had come to be respected for her own brand of leadership, and Kitty, the youngest of the brood, and supposedly the only person who could tell her father to wind up his long campaign speeches.
At the Quezon City Reception House, an all-women family stood to directly witness the swearing into office of the vice president. Men were more visible in the management of both inaugurals, except that a woman emceed the main event in Quezon City.
Women should also be prepared to ask each other "Day, asa na ‘ta?" in the coming years and whether transformations have taken place in key areas.
The National Women’s Summit 2016 outlined these areas using the acronym Change: Comprehensive social services; Human rights, peace and social justice, Anti-discrimination and violence against women, children and LGBT, National sovereignty, Genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization, and Environmental protection and disaster management.
Going back to Gauss's song, the question "Day, asa ka?" could also be read as "woman, do you hope?" Because each inauguration is founded on hopes, among them that the future would be different from, and better than the past.
This ability and opportunity to once again hope should not be denied us citizens by nay-sayers. If one cannot, at this time, suspend preferences, scruples and fears in order to be hopeful about the president or the vice-president and extend to them the chance to prove themselves in national governance, then at the very least we should not lose hope in our fellow citizens.
That the plurality of Filipinos did not vote the way one wanted them to does not mean that they have become gullible enemies incapable of the same grounded, critical and principled capacities that one purports to possess. To harbor that view would be to engage in massive and pointless othering, reinforcing the very divisions that allow a minority to dominate and sustain the inequities in our country.
We need to update our political skills to include the ability to discern between those who perpetrate and benefit from social divides and those who are unwittingly caught in the middle of the divisions; and to become better at communicating that reality that is often masked, and convincing others to change it.
One who willfully excludes by accelerating electoral differences circa 2016 into a blanket condemnation of Filipino voters run the risk of replying to "asa ka?" (where are you? how are you? do you hope?) with profound despair: “nahimulag ug nawala ko” (I have become separated and lost).
We citizens have only been divided by this round of choosing leaders. Our ability to see through and change illusory and unsatisfying leaders, and our power to pursue change with, without and despite them are more fundamental bonds.
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