The congresswoman from Basilan

Some of the country’s best women are members of the 15th Congress. One of them is Anak Mindanao (AMIN)  Party-list Rep. Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman, whose advocacy is working for the  promotion of  peace in Mindanao, battling discrimination and prejudices towards Muslims, and empowering Muslim women.  Daunting tasks, but not for the 37-year-old legislator who is set on improving the plight of her Muslim brothers and sisters.

For years, Djalia, who hails from Basilan, led organizations that worked towards the attainment of the above goals,  particularly on women empowerment, but, she says, “We’ve got a long way to go, considering the gap between rich and less fortunate women; between the educated, career women and those who have not had a good education.”

With her election last May to the House of Representatives, she feels she could help make things happen by drafting bills  she prays  will pass into law.  She has filed an anti-racial discrimination bill, and one that makes mandatory the study of indigenous people’s history and culture, and the institutionalization of zones of peace in conflict areas.

Concerned about improving the economic status of her constituents, she  is drafting bills to promote organic agriculture for security as well as for  opportunity and environmental protection.

Admitting that there are areas where Muslim women’s conditions can be improved, she is looking into a possible revision of the Code of Muslim Personal Laws, which covers marriage, divorce and inheritance of Muslim Filipinos. Here she is talking about equal rights between Muslim men and women.

Djalia’s  social consciousness goes way back to when she was in college, when she was taking up biology at the Western Mindanao State University in Zamboanga City and felt  her people’s clamor for a better life. She went on to her third year of law studies when she was elected secretary-general of the Moro Human Rights Center.  “We were  conducting workshops on human rights education,  for everybody, not just for Muslims. We documented human rights violations, and gave legal assistance to those who needed it.”

Her boss at the center was a personable young man named Mujib Hataman. They met in 1997, and got married in 2000. “I had to stop studying as I had to take care of our kids (they would have five). Besides, Mujib became a congressman for three terms, and this kept her even busier. In 2011, Mujib was appointed head of  the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The Basilan-born legislator founded a women’s organization called Pinay (PINK), which has branches in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. Pinay  trains young women to become leaders in their communities; has a library of books about women, and helps women in livelihood projects, such as in weaving and  mat-making.

Still, she was  involved with the affairs of the AMIN Party-list. Her good work must have reached the ears of the powers-that-be, as in 2010, she was appointed executive director of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (formerly Office of Muslim Affairs).

AMIN chose her to be the  Party-list’s No. 1 nominee in the 2013 elections.  She won, and she is now one of six Muslim women representatives. She says AMIN is “tri-people,” that is, it acknowledges  the “presence and concerns” of three groups of  people – Muslims,  Christians,  and Indigenous People. “Our vision is to make communities live in harmony, to be productive, to be united in our efforts at realizing peace and security, economic development, and environment protection.”

She admits that much of the Muslim areas’ poverty is due to government neglect, starting with the Spanish times. “We can’t deny the historical injustice done to the Bangsamoro. There has been non-recognition of the history and culture of our people. There has been no access to services and economic opportunities.”

Amin’s focus is agriculture, she says. “We are encouraging our farmers to go into coffee farming. This is my passion. I’m requesting agencies to give us seedlings.”

The legislator is into something unique – encouraging women to appreciate the beauty of the hajib – the veil worn to cover a woman’s head and shoulders. There are fashion houses abroad selling the headdress. She herself has a baul full of attractive hajibs.

At a recent Bulong Pulungan session, her husband, ARMM Gov. Mujib, said in his household, his wife is the head. When told about this, Djalia smiled. What is true is that husband and wife complement each other.

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Ben de Leon, president of The Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc., and his chief officer Maricar Vallido, attended the 2013 International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Addis Ababa recently. With the theme “Full Access, Full Choice,” the conference  was jointly hosted by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ministry of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health and the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public  Health.

“The ICFP was more than a conference,” Ben told me. “It reflected a greater movement to expand and improve access to family planning worldwide, and provided a platform to build momentum and generate new commitments to the family planning agenda.” It was attended by 3,400 participants from all over the world, majority of them Africans.

The success of the conference, said Ben, was due to the hard work of a Filipino-American, who presided over countless meetings before and during the international steering committee, and orchestrated the conference’s 750 presentations in 150 panels. His name is Jose (Oying) Rimon II, deputy director  of the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Dubbed the “positive disruptor,” he is “an exhuberant, outspoken advocate with a passion for evidence,” Ben said.

Rimon is currently a senior scientist faculty member of the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health. He had  worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  He led the development and management portfolio of policy and advocacy grants and partnerships covering family  planning and reproductive health, and maternal, neonatal and child health, and nutrition. He served as one of the core planning team of the London Family Planning Summit. He once served as associate director of the Population Commission of the Philippines, and was a member of the advisory board of the Forum.

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I order my turkey for my family Christmas Day lunch  from Gil and Prime Quizon’s farm in Antipolo. I order three days before the  event, frozen, and thaw it hours before roasting time. Because Gil raises birds  (Norfolk black and broadbreasted bronze varieties organically,  using no artificial fatteners), they are tender and juicy. They’re sold at P350 per kilo frozen, and Prime sells them at P700 per kilo roasted. (Prime runs a Kumon center in Ortigas but she finds time to bake and make pestos and sauces). An additional P300 for delivery in Manila area.

Place your orders by calling +63998-4103022. Pick up is at Unit 5B Ash Creek Ortigas ave. corner Madison, San Juan; additional P300 for delivery in Manila.

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