LEILA de Lima. Mocha Uson. These two women now paint the political extremes in the Duterte spectrum.
Just goes to show Digong is a chick magnet even in the political discourse on his reign.
One raises a ruckus in the Senate on extrajudicial killings. Making walkouts in senate sessions and screaming in press conferences a daily staple.
The other is a lightning rod on social media. In her Facebook blog, which has four million followers, a post defending Duterte’s administration or bashing Duterte’s critics, draws a swarm of comments, likes and shares.
It’s a battle of the “yellowtards” versus Duterte Die-Hards.
The former “Noynoy” Aquino yellow “daang matuwid” versus the present administration of “change”. Is this also a battle of the elite versus the poor?
But funny that both these frontliners in the battle of Digong are being bashed in one common issue – sex.
De Lima is rocked by sex scandals, of her alleged flings with her former driver and convicts linked to the drug trade, thus staining her “moral” crusade on the extrajudicial killings.
Mocha is bashed for her credibility as a political analyst because of her career as a leader of a sexy dance troupe and some-time sex instructor on video.
Sex-shaming is a matter of gender discrimination (why can’t men like Duterte be judged because of their promiscuity?)
But in this instance, we need to see where the bashing on de Lima is taking off.
De Lima is making rounds in colleges, branding herself as a victim of sexual politics just like every woman. But it is hard to make de Lima a poster girl for sexual abuse.
Rape is a matter of the victim being played by people in authority or in power. We’re talking of a relationship between worker and boss, child and relative, student and teacher or priest, woman and authority figures.
De Lima in this case is an authority figure, a public official.
The public criticism against her is not simply about shaming her, but rather of her judgment as to why she has been silent before on issues of crime and drugs in her tenure as human rights commissioner and secretary of justice in the past seven years.
This #everywoman campaign for de Lima is a sham compared to the real struggles of women, which is a class struggle against administrations she is linked with.
For instance, we have a current Lakbayan ng Mindanao of national minorities that includes issues of women are in the forefront.
This includes the call for justice for the killing of lumad anti-mining leader Juvy Capion of Davao del Sur, the call for protection of women leaders such as Bai Bibiyaon Ligkay, and the call for the release of lumad school teacher Amelia Pond.
De Lima is silent on these issues. I have sympathies for Mocha for the bashing she gets online. She actually shows guts for citizen journalism with the online interviews. But she does have her agenda of defending the administration, and sometimes that discourse do go awry no thanks to trolls and misinformation. But I think the issue of women struggles should go beyond ranting online and beyond Mocha and de Lima.
Every woman confronts poverty and violence every day. And in this struggle, some may choose to climb the ladder of power and ignore where they come from. While others rally their fellow women and other oppressed sectors to fight and topple that ladder.
tyvelez@gmail.com