VARIOUS organizations held a press conference on March 6, 2026, to share plans and invites for this year’s International Working Women’s Day (IWWD) mobilization.
Oriang, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM), Sanlakas, Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (Spark), Kababaihan para sa Kabuhayan Kalusugan Kalikasan at Katiyakan sa Paninirahan (K4K), Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ), Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (Pahra), Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), Samahan ng Mamamayan-Zone One Tondo (SM-Zoto), Oriang Bulakenya, Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod (KPML) and other allied organizations will hold a protest on March 8, 2026 at Mendiola, Manila.
“On this year’s International Women’s Day, we laud the significant contribution of women in advancing our fight to seek justice for multisectoral issues that plague the world. The current system that continues to abuse and exploit women, and all vulnerable sectors, has no place in the future, as we continue to struggle for justice and build a livable planet for future generations,” said Oyette Zacate, Oriang secretary-general.
Last year, the Philippines was hit by a series of heavy rains and typhoons, causing widespread flooding. The exposé of kickbacks running to over a trillion pesos revealed systemic corruption and drew widespread protest. People flooded the streets to hold all those involved in corruption accountable.
As the United States has begun its bombing spree in Venezuela and now Iran, triggering escalation of bombings in countries across the Middle East, geopolitical conflicts have been pushed to new levels of mayhem and war.
All these greatly exacerbate the suffering experienced by women and other oppressed sectors of society.
“We must realize that the multiple crises, including the climate crisis we are experiencing, are not gender-neutral. Women, as the main caretakers of the family order, while facing oppression from society, have always been the ones who experience these crises the most,” Zacate lamented.
“With the continuous destruction of the environment and economy by capitalists for their own interests, it is also continuously exacerbating the suffering experienced by women. It is clear that destroying the system of exploitation and empowering women in both private and public spaces are the ways to completely free women and citizens from the chains of oppression,” she added.
In 2024, UN Women estimated that over 10,000 women have died so far in Gaza, including an estimated 6,000 moms who abandoned 19,000 orphaned children. The surviving women have experienced famine, displacement, and widowhood. In Gaza, over a million women and girls live in appalling conditions with little access to sanitary pads, latrines, safe water, or food, and disease is spreading.
“There can be no complete response to the multiple crises without the liberation of women. There goes the saying that ‘Women hold up half the sky.’ We should uphold this and let the system crumble on its own,” Zacate said. (PR)