While this day is supposed to remind us all of the negative impact of violence against women, violence it seems, inescapably becomes a part of women's lives. In Minglanilla, two women's organizations have been placed in a hotspot by the military, scaring the wits out of rural women who only dreamed of better lives by uniting themselves. Constantly using the ASEAN summit as a scapegoat (they have to ensure security of the ASEAN leaders), the military completely forgot that they should be securing the lives of their constituents first, not harass or threaten them.
Violence also best describes the way the local government poured in so much money for beautification of Cebu forgetting that Cebuanos, especially women, need basic services more - health, education, water, farm-to-market roads, day care centers. Services long deprived of women resulting to maternal and infant mortality, illiteracy, malnutrition and persistent poverty. All because these are not the priority of the local government.
Now, more than ever, grassroots women's struggle is just and valid amidst a government whose only concern is superficial development and more importantly, political survival.
Sarah A. Dayoha
Officer-in-charge
Women's Resource Center of Cebu, Inc.