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ON ERAP'S FIRST
SONA:
JOBS, LANDS, HOMES FOR WOMEN, NOT VFA
PRESS RELEASE
July 23, 1998
"Worsening poverty, displacement and sexual commodification - these are the issues being faced by the Filipino women and these are the issues President Joseph Estrada must address". This was the statement made by Liza Maza, secretary general of GABRIELA.
GABRIELA, together with other militant organizations under Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) held a press conference this morning regarding their plans for President Estrada's first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.
"Either women have no jobs or they are employed in the most exploitative conditions of work earning below the minimum wage, working beyond 8 hours with no maternity or health benefits" Maza said. She also added that women continue to be discriminated with hiring conditions such as fertility tests, pregnancy tests and even virginity tests.
"Peasant women are being displaced from their land both by foreign-owned 'development projects' and militarization. In the city, women find themselves having to defend their homes from being demolished". This is the general situation of Filipino women, according to GABRIELA, which President Estrada must address.
"Jobs, lands, homes - these are what the Filipino women need at this point" said Maza.
The militant women's group insists that in order to respond to the problems
besetting the Filipino women, the new administration of President Estrada must
"extricate the Philippines from all bilateral and multilateral agreements
binding the country to unequal relations with other more developed countries
such as the United States and Japan".
In relation, the group also denounced the government's endorsement of the Visiting
Forces Agreement. "VFA will only worsen the situation of Filipino women.
Set in the backdrop of poverty and displacement, the presence of US military
personnel in 22 ports all over the country will only propel boundless increase
in the number of prostituted women and children".
GABRIELA will be joining other organizations under BAYAN on their mass action on the opening of Congress on Monday.
