Phl observes 75th Woman Suffrage Day

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino women entered the world of politics 75 years ago, when they were allowed to cast their votes for the very first time.

 According to election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, April 30, which has been declared as “Woman Suffrage Day,” is a historic day for Filipino women.

“Today is the 75th anniversary of that historic and momentous day when Filipino women voted for the first time,” Macalintal said.

In 1907, when the first election law took place, the right of suffrage was limited to male citizens of voting age.

“Women were not allowed to vote as they were regarded as mere extension of the personality of their husbands or fathers,” Macalintal noted.

However, advocates of woman suffrage who showed courage and dynamism insisted on their right to vote and to run for public office.

Their battle cry then was: “Taxation without representation is tyranny” because they “suffer penalties and are summoned before the courts and are made to pay taxes under laws they had no voice in making.”

It took them almost 30 years before they were finally heard and recognized under the 1935 Constitution.

In the plebiscite held on April 30, 1937 a total of 447,725 voted “yes” and only 44,307 voted “no.”

Meanwhile, Ms. Elisa Ochoa became the first elected woman in Philippine Congress.

“Our Filipino women of today should salute those great and dynamic women leaders in the ‘30s and the 447,725 women who trooped to the polls on April 30, 1937. It was because of that vote why we now have a total of 25 million registered women voters and a number of distinguished elected women leaders in the country,” Macalintal pointed out.

In 1984, Malacañang declared April 30 as Woman Suffrage Day to enable Filipino women “to renew their advocacy and support for clean, honest and free elections and pursue with greater zeal their efforts toward this direction.”