Melinda French Gates (left), and House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Wikipedia, Speaker’s office)


Inspired by a lecture delivered by philanthropist and women advocate Melinda French Gates, House Speaker Martin Romualdez has said that he would move to empower women "through the flywheel of digitalization". Romualdez made this known after hearing French Gates' remarks at the World Bank (WB)-International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings. The event took place Saturday, April 15 (Philippine time) at the headquarters of the IMF in the United States (US) capital of Washington DC. "French Gates' words ring true in that even in this day and age, women are still marginalized professionally. We cannot keep ignoring this unfortunate situation if we are to truly have an inclusive society. Luckily, digitization can be the great equalizer and place women on equal footing as men in terms of work opportunities, power, and influence," the Speaker said in a statement Monday, April 17. "Melinda French Gates also mentioned how important the digital public infrastructure (DPI) is to women's empowerment. DPI provides them access to capital and opportunities. It gives them dignity and respect and allows them to engage in more activities," Romualdez said. "There should be no stopping women from being key players in this infrastructure. We will make sure to empower women in this regard through legislation, once we have laid down this DPI," Speaker Romualdez said. "Women empowerment has definitely worked in our collective favor in the House of Representatives. To see this replicated across all workplaces through the flywheel of digitalization, will make French Gates proud," he said. Romualdez, in his role as Speaker, has been a staunch supporter of the women's movement in the House of Representatives. Under his watch, numerous women legislators have been placed in top posts, making them essential to the chamber’s daily operations. Earlier Saturday, Speaker Romualdez, who represents Leyte's 1st district in Philippine Congress, also attended a lecture on DPI where he had a chance to speak to Nandan Nilekani, one of the founders of Indian multinational information technology company Infosys. Romualdez subsequently suggested that the Philippines set up a DPI partnership with the United State (US) and  India. French Gates, 58, is the co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest private charitable organizations. The ex-wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, French Gates has written about women empowerment and is an advocate of increasing the number of women technologists in the workplace, having seen first-hand how men dominate the field. Romualdez has said that digitalization will “prove to be the panacea to the economic problems left behind by Covid-19." The Philippine government under President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., he said, had recognized the value of digital transformation and had been moving towards this goal way before the WB-IMF Spring Meetings. “This is the reason why the House of Representatives has passed the E-Governance/E-Government Bill, which seeks to shift the entire bureaucracy to the digital space for faster and transparent delivery of services, and for better engagement with the public,” he said.