And the Winner Is . . . Strong Filipino Women

By: Bob Boyer

 

The plan was to write this last article of 2017 as a review of the highlights from the articles of the past twelve months, starting with December, 2016. Quite to my surprise, four of the twelve clearly focused on “Strong Filipino Women.” That has been a recurring theme in my writing for the past twenty-five years, but the twelve titles from 2016 gave no such clue. I guess that shows how ingrained strong women are in the social fabric of the country, as I see it.

1) March. The first three articles paid scant attention to the women theme. Then came March, 2017, with my column entitled “Duterte News: Some Good, Mostly Bad.” Supremely ironically, it actually was all about strong women. Half way through the article, the Duterte news turns sour. A Filipino court (read ‘Duterte’) had just ordered the arrest of Senator Leila De Lima. She had been speaking out courageously against Duterte’s administration, particularly the vigilante (“extrajudicial”) killings in his war on drugs.” Senator De Lima was indeed arrested in March and remains in detention as of this writing (December, 2017).

As it happens, though this is not in my March article, the other major figure who has been vocal in opposition to Duterte is another strong Filipina, Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo. A November 10, 2017 article in “DW” (“Deutsche Welle” is a liberal but reputable German international news organization) interviewed Robredo. The Vice President had hoped to find some common ground with Duterte when he appointed her to his Cabinet (Housing and Urban Development), but that hope quickly faded. She was ordered to stop attending Cabinet Meetings, and Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (son of the Marshal Law Dictator) insists he will replace her as Vice President. He lost to Robredo by 200, 000 votes last year. In my observations, it has been mostly women opposing Duterte’s extremism.

2) June. The second Strong Filipino Woman is the hero I found in the “New York Times” obituaries (April 29, 2017). Our hero received frontpage coverage, unusual for NYT obituaries. Florence (“Betty”) Finch got her fighting spirit from her American father and her quiet strength from her Filipino mother. Her father fought in the U.S. Army in the Philippine-U.S. War (1899-1902), then surrendered (in marriage) to a Filipina. Daughter Betty married an American sailor who was killed in action trying to bring supplies to the U.S. troops on Corregidor. Betty collaborated with the Philippine Resistance during the Japanese occupation until she was discovered, imprisoned, and tortured repeatedly. She was liberated on February 10, 1945. She weighed 80 pounds. She wasn’t finished fighting. She joined the U.S. Coast Guard and was highly decorated for her service, including the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Ribbon, the first woman to do so. The Coast Guard named a building in Hawaii in her honor in 1995.

3) July. I have been a fan of Wonder Woman since I was a kid and never missed a day reading the “funnies” in the daily paper. I caught the “Wonder Woman” movie this past summer though I rarely go to movies. Imagine my delight when I came across a picture on Facebook recently (June 27) that showed my friend Beng Dalisay holding an article from the June 26 “Philippine Star,” with the headline, “Wonder Woman in the House.” Butch Dalisay, UP Professor and currently Vice President for Public Affairs, wrote the article as a tribute to Beng after accompanying her when she conducted an art restoration workshop in Ilongo. Butch begins by reminiscing how he first saw Beng at UP. He was a shy freshman, she an upperclassman at an anti- Marcos (Marcos Sr.) rally. He ends by watching her with a similar “crush” as he sits in on the workshop, “like a mouse in a corner of the room.”

4) November. University Professor Gelia Castillo (1928-2017) was a Philippine treasure, “a world-class rural sociologist.” She was declared a National Scientist in 1999; she was a long-time Consultant in residence at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which largely generated the “Green Revolution” that has supported millions of farmers and fed the hungry in the Philippines and globally. I was honored to know her personally, enjoying classic Filipino hospitality (food and laughter). She also had a great, dry sense of humor. I’m smiling as I recall her comment to me when Cory Aquino rescinded the law permitting and supporting birth control: “It was a Cardinal Sin,” she said (Jaime Sin was then Cardinal of the Philippines). To her many honors should be added, “Champion of the People.”

Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu or <anamericaninmanila. com>.