THE VIEW FROM RIZAL

During my brief stint as assistant secretary in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, I was asked this question by a colleague. The question was:

“Is nature a ‘woman’? Why do we refer to ‘her’ as ‘Mother Nature’?”

I was sure the question was being asked in jest. I realized, however, that there was much sense in that insight. Nature must be “woman,” and she should rightfully be called “Mother.”

After all, Mother Nature is just like the women and mothers whom we honor as the world marks the annual celebration of International Women’s Month this March. Women and nature share certain outstanding qualities and powers, among them, the ability to bear, give, and nurture life, to exhibit exceptional resiliency, and the outstanding capacity to withstand challenges and to rise up to the occasion when called upon by circumstances.

In our view, those qualities particularly stand out in the Filipino woman.

In the early 1970s, we recall that there was a hit song titled “I am woman.” It almost immediately hit number one in the billboard charts the moment it aired. It was sung and composed by Australian artist Helen Reddy. We recall two memorable lines from that song.

Here they are:

“I am woman, hear me roar in numbers too big to ignore.”

“You can bend but never break me ‘cause it only serves to make me more determined to achieve my final goal.”

The song supposedly became the anthem of the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 70s.

During that time, there were social, religious, and political upheavals in many parts of the world.

At the forefront of many of these upheavals were emerging women leaders. They were the roaring 70s and, as they said, the loudest roars were from women.

When we heard the song and learned about the story behind it, we thought it was the perfect song for many women around the world.

But not necessarily for the Filipina.

Our history appears to show that the Filipina has long been roaring – both loudly and subtly – long before the world came face to face with the Women’s Liberation Movement. It appears the Filipinas have long been liberated. For centuries, she had roared and her roar had been heard and heeded in many important chapters of our history.

In every chapter of the history of our country’s bid for liberation, there was the roar of the Filipina. She roared as she commanded her soldiers and wielded her sword against colonial oppressors, or as she attended to the dead and wounded at the battlefront.

She went by the name of Princess Urduja, Princess Tarhata Kiram, Gabriela Silang, Teresa Magbanua, Melchora Aquino, and Josefa Llanes Escoda.

Our country had already elected a Filipina to Congress while her counterpart in Europe was still fighting for the right to vote. She was Elisa Ochoa, a registered and erstwhile representative of the province of Agusan to the Congress of the Philippines.

We had already elected a Filipina to the Senate long before Indira Gandhi joined the Indian Parliament and long before Golda Meir got elected into the Israeli Knesset. Her name was Geronima Pecson, an educator, social worker, and first woman senator of the Philippines. We had already elected two Filipinas to the highest office of the land while the women political leaders of North America are, to this very day, still trying to break the proverbial “glass ceiling.”

Could it be that, for the Filipino woman, there really has never been a glass ceiling?

When Helen Reddy wrote and sang the lyrics, “You can bend but never break me,” she must have had the Filipina in mind. There have been attempts to break the Filipina and these never succeeded.

Could it be that if ever the Filipina bent, it was only to pick up the pieces and clean up the mess that her male counterpart made and left behind?

Today, the Filipino woman remains unbroken and still continues to bend. She bends her knees to talk to the youngster she teaches in our classrooms, comfort a patient, examine specimens in a science laboratory, pore over documents for her approval in various business offices, and engage her constituents in national and local governments in productive dialogue.

She bends her knees to attend to her children and to nurture them.

She is a woman. She is a wife. She is a mother. She is a warrior. She is a leader.

She is like Mother Nature. She is the Filipino woman. We honor her as we join the global community in celebrating International Women’s Month. ([email protected])