On International Women’s Day, peasant women’s group Amihan urged women to unite and resist the “intensifying” attacks by the Duterte government against women, peasants and the Filipino people.
(Photo by CLAUDIO CRUZ / AFP / FILE PHOTO)
Zenaida Soriano, national chairperson of Amihan, said that attacks against women have intensified under the Duterte administration, as well as the socio-economic crisis in the country.
But she noted that these circumstances have also urged women to step up and fight for their rights.
“Proof that women are not shy and quiet but are ready to participate in actions to fight for their rights, livelihood and the future of their family and the next generation,” Soriano said in a statement issued Monday, March 8.
Amihan alleged that 42 peasant women were killed under the Duterte government.
Among those killed, the group said, was Chai Evangelista, a fisherfolk woman and environmental activist who was one of the five people killed on March 8 in Nasugbu, Batangas during the series of police operations in southern Luzon.
Evangelista was killed along with her husband Ariel, the group added.
“The recent mass killings and mass arrests of activists and leaders of progressive organizations in Southern Tagalog is a result of Duterte’s ‘Kill them all’ marching order and blatant statement to ‘forget about human rights’ in the fulfillment of his counter-insurgency craze,” Soriano said.
“How many more women will lose their fathers, children and husbands? How many more children will lose their mother? How many more families will be destroyed by the madness and bloodshed of this government,” she added.
In the statement, human rights group Karapatan and Amihan noted that 62 out of the 79 peasant women political prisoners were imprisoned during Duterte’s term, including peasant leader Genalyn Avelino, who was arrested last month over a rebellion case.
“Peasant women and women from marginalized sectors have a common enemy – the Duterte government who has completely neglected the welfare of farmers and the poor amid the impact of the pandemic, series of calamities and the ongoing food and economic crisis,” Soriano said.
“Women have to stand and defend fellow women against abuses, red-tagging, EJK (extra judicial killing), illegal arrest and detention and other human rights abuses perpetrated by the Duterte government,” she added.