Phl to mark 77th year of women suffrage

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino women will celebrate the 77th year of their right to suffrage on Wednesday.

Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said 447,725 Filipino women voted for first time on April 30 1937, after years of struggle and fight for their right to vote.

Since then, women were allowed to vote paving the way for their participation in government.

Even until the ratification of the 1935 Constitution, Macalintal said, only males aged 23 years and above were allowed to vote.

The women then were considered as mere extension of their husbands or fathers and were not fit to participate in the affairs of government.

But brave members of the women’s groups in the ‘30s fought for their right to suffrage, which they described as a “right they earned and deserved.”

“As a result, a provision was added to the 1935 Constitution affirming women’s right to suffrage.

On March 29, 1984, then President Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation No. 2346 declaring April 30 of every year as “Woman Suffrage Day.”