The Ghosts of Aktibistas Past: A New Generation of Filipino Women’s Rights Activists Faces a Daunting Legacy of Inspiration, Expectations, Stigmas & Divisions
Camila Domonoske Davidson College Faculty Mentor: Shireen Campbell Davidson College
ABSTRACT For young Filipinos activists like Judy, a leftist working for women’s rights, the Filipino activist tra- dition is a complicated inspiration and a mixed legacy. In the 1980s, now-revered aktibistas success- fully overthrew Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship. Today, those working towards social change are fre- quently and negatively compared to the anti-Marcos activists, who had the benefit of a single, easily defined enemy. Young activists have also inherited a division within the left, born after the collapse of the Marcos coalition that stigmatizes all activism as “communist” while creating tensions between individual organizations. Judy’s story shows the impact of these expectations, stigmas and divisions.
n an upscale pastry shop in one of women’s rights is like a centimeter a year, I Manila’s many shopping malls, Judy, a just a centimeter.” 23-year-old women’s rights activist, leans Her words seem pessimistic, but Judy’s across the table and says that she does not passion for her work drives her to speak for offer clients hope. As a full-time counselor hours. All I have to do is listen. I’ve been do- and paralegal assisting victims of rape and ing a lot of listening; I am in the Philippines assault, what she offers is a choice. conducting interviews with young women’s “I just tell them that the justice system rights activists and asking them about what here sucks and we all know it. Now, what brought them to activism. I’ve recorded do you want to do? You want to continue story after story, and I’m meeting Judy to fighting for your rights, no matter what the discover hers. ending? At least you can tell people that you As a young white woman without the fought for your rights. Or just go back out ability to speak a word of Tagalog, I feel and continue with your life.” She pauses. conspicuously out of place everywhere I “The longest-running case I ever en- go, but Judy doesn’t bat an eyelash when I countered went for twelve years. Incest. It reach out to shake her hand. I mention my got dismissed.” Bitterness haunts her voice. Filipino grandfather, my feminist mother, “That’s reality… The progress we make on my research interests, but she doesn’t seem
64 Camila Domonoske to need my justifications. I want to hear in particular. At first, my goal was to col- about why she’s an activist. That’s all she lectively describe what had inspired these needs to know. young people to pursue women’s rights ac- Judy gestures to our pastries and informs tivism. But as I conducted my interviews, me that their price could pay a family of I realized that interviewing the youngest four for a day, an example of the economic generation of Filipino women’s rights ac- inequality crippling her nation. Picking at tivists had given me a fascinating cross- her roll, she castigates colonialism, corrup- section of stories about an ongoing activ- tion, inadequate laws, sexist social struc- ist legacy. Judy’s story was one response to tures, and complacency. She’s full of facts a generation-wide, highly contradictory and figures, well-briefed by her organiza- inheritance. tion, GABRIELA – the General Assembly In the 1980s, after decades of resistance, Binding Women for Reform, Integrity, Filipino activists overthrew the Marcos Equality, Leadership and Action, an leftist dictatorship. While today’s young activists umbrella organization with operations are cannot remember this seminal event, it pro- almost as expansive as its name. foundly influences their activist work. The Judy blends her training, knowledge and impressive achievements of earlier activists experience to explain the forces she is fight- both inspire Filipino youth and give them ing. Her voice is steady, frustrated. She has an impossible standard to live up to, now turned down promising job offers in order that the struggle against a single, specific to fight for women’s rights, for social and opponent has been replaced by attempts political equality, for the justice she cannot to change more subtle societal structures. promise the women who come to her. But Meanwhile, the shifting post-Marcos po- she is tired. litical landscape has linked the word “activ- In my time in the Philippines, I learned ist” with Maoist communist doctrine and that young women’s rights activists across sharply divided organizations with differ- this archipelago feel similarly mixed emo- ent political philosophies; both the stigma tions towards the social justice movement of activism and the split within it continue driving their lives. Many of those conflicted to haunt young activists. feelings are tied to a complex relationship The complex inheritance is implicit even with the Filipino activist tradition. I inter- in the language of Filipino activism: akti- viewed 53 self-identified women’s rights bista and tibak, the two Tagalog words for activists or advocates under the age of “activist,” directly invoke the popular social 30, with a variety of socioeconomic back- movements of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Once grounds, educational experience, and fam- valued, today the words have negative con- ily histories, from five different islands and notations. The mingled associations of ak- eleven cities. Their organizations ranged tibista and tibak, like Judy’s blend of passion politically from communist to moderate, and cynicism, reflect the paradox lived by and covered women’s issues from angles in- young Filipino activists: their work, follow- cluding women in politics, working women, ing a revered tradition, is often denigrated reproductive right, religious issues, wom- in the modern world. en’s health, indigenous women’s rights, and antiprostitution work. Activism as Inspiration, Activist as In one-on-one and group interviews, I Insult asked these diverse activists and advocates Judy’s generation of Filipinos was to tell me about their history with activ- raised in a world transformed by activ- ism and what drew them to women’s rights ism. Dictator Ferdinand Marcos, president
65 Explorations | Humanities and Fine Arts of the country since 1965, had declared “If you were an activist in the 1970s and martial law in 1972 and maintained an 1980s when there was martial law, you authoritarian and corrupt government for were viewed as being a patriot because twenty years. During that time, covert op- your intention was very clean: to uplift the position groups included armed resistance country, to free it,” explains John, 22, an as well as moderate, non-violent organi- interior design student not associated with zations. In 1983, senator and opposition any activist organizations. “But now...” leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated He hesitates. “People doubt your inten- and Marcos accused of masterminding tions. Nowadays it’s not so patriotic to be his death. Aquino’s martyrdom fueled a an activist.” widespread uprising, bringing decades of “There is a connotation that you smell,” civil resistance and armed struggle to an says Maria, a 24-year-old researcher who astonishing finale. In the People Power studies gender issues. “That you are al- Revolution of 1986 massive nonviolent ways on the streets. That you are very demonstrations on the main highway of hard-core.” She glances around her quiet Manila resulted in Marcos fleeing the coun- office at a collegiate Women and Gender try. Democracy replaced autocratic martial Institute, filled with pamphlets and proj- law, Aquino’s widow, Corazon Aquino, ect reports, and smiles ironically. “I think became the new president, and the activ- I don’t fit well in that stereotype. But I see ists who led the revolution were national myself as an activist.” heroes. This peaceful revolution set a high The legacy of the martial law heroes standard for future activists to meet – in the both inspires and burdens the new activist Filipino memory, successful activism brings generation. Young protestors have a level democracy back to a long-suffering nation.1 of respect for the Marcos-era revolutionar- Today, the public still venerates these ies that borders on the worshipful. But the martial law activists. Aquino’s face graces pressure of constant comparisons with the reverential t-shirts, and the names of both original protestors – and the unquestioned Benigno and Corazon Aquino are invoked validity of their cause – haunts contempo- in political conversation on a daily basis. rary activism. Their son, Noynoy Aquino, won the 2010 presidential elections based primarily on From Overthrowing a Dictator to his patriotic pedigree. The most moderate, Changing a Society respectable middle-class Filipinos will wax Today, many Filipinos think that activ- rhapsodic about the joy they felt marching ism became obsolete after Marcos fell. En during the People Power Revolution. But route to interviews, taxi drivers inform me the same people who adore the old aktibi- that the activists I’m visiting are holding the stas look with suspicion upon the activists Philippines back. In the pastry shop, Judy of today. lays out their logic: “During the martial law era, there were a lot of abuses, very blatant human rights violations, and after martial 1 For more information on the People Power law there was a lot of hope that things Revolution from an activist’s perspective, see Mendoza, Amado, ‘”People Power” in the Philippines, 1983-86’, would change. I would say people are no in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.). Civil longer in favor of activism because they Resistance and Power Politics:The Experience of Non-violent would say Marcos was evil. And now he is Action from Gandhi to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. For a political history of Marcos’ rule during gone. It’s okay!” the martial law era, see Celoza, Albert F. Ferdinand Marcos Anti-Marcos activists fought a dictator and the Philippines: the political economy of authoritarianism. with the promise that if they threw him Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing, 1997.
66 Camila Domonoske out of power, the country would change interests.4 But this “rebirth” of the women’s forever. Today’s Filipino activists can make rights movement occurred at a time when, no such claims. They fight against colonial according to the activists I interviewed, influences, political and economic inequal- larger culture viewed activism in general as ity, environmental destruction, corruption, no longer necessary. poverty, poor health, sexism, and a host of Elisa, a 30-year-old activist and advo- other issues; women’s rights activists, many cate, remembers the aftermath of the fall of whom embrace intersectionality, often of Marcos and has seen the role of activism protest all at once. But they cannot point evolve since then. She sighs when she talks to a single issue or individual as the root of about the growing mistrust of activists and the nation’s evils. their intentions. “The problem is that the The efficacy of a common enemy in issues now are not as manifest as they used building a coalition or movement has been to be,” she says. “Young people might think well-established since Émile Durkheim first that there’s nothing wrong, but that’s pre- started theorizing about social integration, cisely it. When young people stop question- and continues to be acknowledged con- ing and stop wondering why certain things temporary social movement theory.2 As are, that’s a huge problem.” James M Jasper writes in The Art of Moral Even when people are aware of the Protest, “it seems easier to forge consensus Philippines’ many modern struggles, they around an analysis of what is wrong with may still choose to dismiss modern activ- current policies than around directions for ists on the basis of the martial-law history. the future.”3 For Filipino activists, this gen- Continued social and political problems eralization seems to hold true; activists en- lead some citizens to conclude that ac- joyed stronger coalitions and a broader base tivism, even activism as successful as the of support when they fought against Marcos People Power Revolution, simply does not than when they fought for any cause. work. After protests overthrew Marcos and For woman’s rights activists, their sense later president Joseph Estrada, corruption of decreasing popular support post-Marcos remained. Poverty remained. Abuses of is almost completely disconnected from the power, violent conflict, and failures of the actual effectiveness of activists. In many justice system remained. ways, after Marcos’ fall the women’s rights “When you hope so badly for change movement leaped forward more dramati- and you don’t get it,” Judy tells me, “you cally than ever; new organizations arose, learn that if you want to get justice, you and women gained new power within an have to be rich. You see that there’s no al- activist community that had previously em- ternative to the society that you’re living in. phasized the“national good” over women’s You know that, ‘oh, well, this is life.’ People are apathetic, but to be honest, the primary need of the Filipinos is to survive.” She 2 For instance: “It is only when independent groups shrugs. “It’s understandable.” have been forced, particularly in order to defend themselves against a common enemy, to draw closer The perceived complacency of the together and keep the peace with one another, that general public, the same people who a group was able to repress an assault by one of its were on the streets during the People members upon another group...” Durkheim, Émile. “Political Obligation, Moral Duty and Punishment.” Power Revolution, continually frustrates Durkheim on politics and the state. Ed. Anthony Giddens. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986. 167. 4 For an extensive description of this process, see 3 Jasper, James M. The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Kwiatkowski, Lynn. “Feminist struggles for feminist Biography and Creativity in Social Movements. Chicago: nationalism in the Philippines.” Feminist Nationalism. New University of Chicago Press, 1997. 362-363 York: Routledge, 1997. 147-168
67 Explorations | Humanities and Fine Arts present-day Filipino activists. They want to Many activists and organizations work to transform their country from the inside out, improve the lives of the nation’s poor and moving beyond a model in which interna- marginalized while denouncing both the tional NGOs and aid agencies reach out politics and the methods of the far left. To to the Global South. Without the muscle complicate matters, however, other activists and bank accounts of foreigners, though, believe that communist organizing, follow- they need a broad base of local support. ing Maoist philosophy and upholding the Every day they fight to overcome what they primacy of armed revolution, is the only identify as their twin ailments in the pub- valid type of activism. These leftist activists lic’s eye: general apathy and activism’s bad embrace the derogatory connotations of reputation. aktibista and promote the blanket stereotype that more moderate activists try to resist. Activism and the Left The divide within the activist commu- Adding to the stigma of activism, popu- nity goes far deeper than this disagree- lar opinion indelibly links contemporary ment over the validity of stereotypes. After activism, including women’s rights activ- the Marcos regime fell, the community of ism, with leftism. The anti-Marcos move- Filipino leftists split between those who re- ment was not exclusively leftist: it included affirmed the armed struggle and those who a somewhat fractious coalition of the chose to work with the new government. Catholic Church, the military, moder- “National Democratic” organizations carry ate political organizations, and the intel- the standard for the ‘reaffirmists’ and stick lectual elite, as well as armed communist to Maoist communist principles, and an groups. After Aquino became president, array of more moderately socialist groups most groups chose to cooperate with the stand with the ‘rejectionists’. In the world new government; a communist faction, of women’s rights activism, GABRIELA – however, was excluded from the new gov- Judy’s organization – represents the most ernment and continued armed resistance powerful NatDem women’s rights group. to authority even after the fall of Marcos. These inherited, post-Marcos tensions still Today, many Filipinos closely associate hamper attempts at cooperation between the word “activism” with the New People’s GABRIELA members and rejectionists, Army, or NPA – communist guerillas, hid- even those who once worked side by side. ing in the mountains, opposing democrati- Activists from both sides of the split told cally elected presidents. When I mentioned me, plaintively, that the conflict impedes to one cab driver that I was visiting an activ- the development of effective coalitions that ist, he said with concern, “Why would you fight for women’s interests. Others saw the want to talk to them? Isn’t that dangerous?” split as simply dividing right from wrong. Any type of social justice work can open Irene, 22, a student activist with activists, advocates and non-profit employ- GABRIELA, bluntly frames her opinion ees up to accusations of communist lean- of the division between moderate activists ings. Elisa, 30, has faced this stereotype for and the far left: “There are many people so long that she responds with amusement. who claim to be activists, but they are not “After college,” she says, “I wanted to get National Democratic activists and they into human rights work. My mother said, can’t define themselves as activists... to be ‘Why, do you want to be mistaken for a a real activist, I mean the ones who can leftist?’ ” Elisa shrugs. “That stigma is very really stand for the interests of Filipinas, limiting to a lot of people. I just tried to you have to be Nat Dem.” The split be- change it.” tween the left and the far left, which had
68 Camila Domonoske combined forces during the days of martial an activist, saying to herself: “I want to do law activism, defines the very meaning of something that’s worthy, that’s important in aktibista for many of today’s young activists. my life. I want to do something so even if I died right now I would say - I do this thing.” The Path to Activism – And The Price She lied to her parents and told them she Like Irene, Judy considers all non-Nat- had to keep working with GABRIELA to Dem groups “an enemy” to her cause; get her degree. Long after she’d finished she, too, does not believe that members her practicum, she kept volunteering. In of non-communist groups deserve the title women’s rights advocacy she did reward- of “activist.” But she is more diplomatic ing work, used her psychology degree, and than Irene, saying, “We all have different found a community that supported her as perspectives based on our experiences in a woman, as a lesbian, and as an activist. life.” Judy herself was born into an upper- Her non-activist parents were not middle-class family and supported by her pleased. “If your father worked his ass off father’s work overseas, a common path to to give [you] a great education… get you Filipino prosperity. She was as surprised as to study in a very expensive school, let you her family by her journey from a comfort- choose whatever courses you want, and able childhood into the world of activism then suddenly you work in a nongovern- and its complex divisions and challenges. ment organization with no pay, no salary, Educated at one of the Philippines’ top you go to the streets to protest and rally…” private colleges, Judy first encountered Judy says, “Nobody wants that.” Marxism in a sociology class. As she learned Life as an activist comes with risks as well more about leftist political ideology, and as as financial costs. Filipino activism has al- her psychology practicum led her to work ways been dangerous.5 While many orga- with GABRIELA, she soon turned away nizers hope for a safer environment under from her original goal of being a doctor President Aquino, the son of two activists, and became interested in activist causes. such improvement is hardly guaranteed. Meeting victims of rape and incest led Journalists who uncover injustices routinely her to woman’s issues in particular. “I real- disappear, and activists fighting those injus- ized Sex and the City didn’t do much when tices are equally vulnerable; a U.N. investi- it came to women’s liberation,” she says gation cited a Karapatan report claiming wryly, as the pastry shop starts to close. She that 885 left-leaning activists and political describes how devastating poverty, an un- leaders were killed over six years, includ- responsive police force, and the lack of re- ing human rights defenders and unionists.6 productive health care services exacerbate many problems facing Filipinas, particu- 5 “Arbitrary, unlawful, and extrajudicial killings by larly problems of assault and abuse. Sexist elements of the security services and political killings, cultural and social institutions also abound. including killings of journalists, by a variety of state The waitresses in our pastry shop – there and nonstate actors continued to be serious problems. Concerns about impunity persisted… Leftist and human are no waiters – wear a uniform featuring rights activists reported harassment by local security short skirts and tall socks. Judy looks point- forces.” U.S. State Department. “Philippines.” Country edly at their clothes and asks, “Do you Reports on Human Rights Practices 2010. The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. 69 Explorations | Humanities and Fine Arts While I was in the Philippines a prominent rallies? More fundamentally, how can doz- party-list leader was assassinated in broad ens of separate political causes be pulled daylight, and many of the activists I spoke together into a sustained movement? to expressed anxiety over his killing.7 And, given the high expectations, harsh Kim, who once served as a spokeswoman stigma, lack of mainstream support, con- for GABRIELA and now holds a more flicts between activist groups, and physical moderate rejectionist stance, describes risks, is life as an activist still worth it? the daily fears of activists: “Especially un- I interviewed over 50 young women’s der the previous administration--Gloria rights activists, and almost all answered Arroyo’s--it was very, very tense time for that question, explicitly or implicitly, with activists. I was coming home, always look- yes. They didn’t deny the challenges they ing over the shoulder to see if someone was faced, and some had lowered their own following me. Every week could be three to personal expectations of success, but all five people dead,” she says. “There’s a lot were unambiguously committed to their of worrying, should I continue or should I fight. Except one- Judy. just let things mellow for a while? I want to By the end of our interview, Judy and I sit preserve myself...” outside the mall, after the pastry shop wait- “A lot of activists actually went to hid- resses locked the doors and the mall police- ing for a while,” she says, “but I couldn’t go men pushed us out. The sun has long since into hiding at the time. I was the only pub- gone down, but Judy isn’t done talking. lic figure of GABRIELA in my area. Plus, She jokes lightheartedly that as the young- why would I hide? I’m not doing anything est woman at her office, the other activists wrong!” treat her like she’s crazy. “But I have a right “But I was crossing my fingers every time to get crazy,” she says, less jokingly, “I get I left to go home.” an average of ten calls a day from women talking about their abuses. Who wouldn’t Bringing Filipino Activism Into the get crazy?” Future Entirely serious now, she stutters to a Today’s young Filipino activists, carrying stop. After three hours of talking cease- both the burden and the banner of their lessly about why she works with women, martial-law forebears, face big questions. day in and day out, listening to their pain Will the rejectionist/reaffirmist split be and giving them emotional support and le- bridged by cooperation? Should activists gal advice, she now has to pause to choose continue street organizing and rallies, or her words. turn to online organizing and social media? “What if I tell you that I want to stop?” Can these two organizing approaches be I wait. The Manila heat is finally dissipat- integrated, or does the Internet only create ing into the night air, and a cooler breeze “armchair activists” who will not appear at hits our faces. “Sometimes you want to explore other things,” she says as if apologizing. “Of refworld/docid/484d2b2f2.html>. Accessed September 14, 2011. course I’d still be a woman’s rights advo- cate. Just maybe not an activist.” 7 See Kowk, Abigail and Nestor P. Burgos, Jr. “First killing of activist under Aquino condemned.” Philippine Judy told me that any time spent promot- Daily Inquirer. July 5, 2010. 70 Camila Domonoske has any hope of creating substantive, posi- were inspired; where she embraces the tive changes for her country, so any other post-Marcos link between communism and type of activism – or labor – is futile. If she activism, many others try to erase that as- leaves GABRIELA, by her definition she sociation. But every activist I spoke to was, will no longer be an activist. in some way, navigating this relationship As we sit on the steps, I feel the urge with the glorified activist history. In that to comfort Judy, who looks bereft at the sense, Judy’s struggle is entirely represen- thought of losing that aspect of her identity. tative: even the most committed and pas- I tell her about another woman I recently sionate activists struggle with the standards interviewed, Michelle, a researcher and ac- imposed by the past, and the divisions that tivist who works with high school girls to have arisen within old alliances. promote self esteem and gender conscious- For Judy, that struggle may end in a ness. Michelle had told me, “Activism is change of lifestyle, but as her stubborn a lifestyle. It’s not just something you do. glance makes clear, that doesn’t make her If you’re an activist, if you are a feminist, any less of an activist now. She won’t be then you are an activist for the rest of your leaving GABRIELA today, or this week. life.” She won’t make this decision overnight. Judy’s face is somewhat doubtful. When Tomorrow she’ll go back into work, she talks about stopping, about moving greeting her patients and clients. She’ll an- from the world of activism to the world of swer calls from new victims, hoping she will paid labor, her voice wavers with the fear not hear more terrible stories than she can of something ending forever. Michelle’s bear. Unable to offer those victims a prom- eyes shone when she talked about the frus- ise of justice, she’ll tell them about their trating challenges she faces. Judy just looks choices. It will be a long day’s work, and pensive. But after a long moment, she to carry her through it, Judy holds on to smiles again. a humble hope, smaller and yet somehow No activist I spoke to could stand as more profound than the old vision of a top- a representative of “the young Filipino pling dictatorship. Knowing all the limita- women’s rights activist experience, ” and tions on her achievements, on her mission, certainly not Judy, the only activist who and on her nation, tomorrow she’ll keep told me of plans to leave the field. Where seeking a centimeter’s worth of progress. she is frustrated by what she sees as an apa- thetic post-Marcos public, some activists Names have been changed to pseudonyms. 71 Explorations | Humanities and Fine Arts REFERENCES Celoza, Albert F. Ferdinand Marcos and the Philippines: the political economy of authoritarianism. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing, 1997. Durkheim, Émile. “Political Obligation, Moral Duty and Punishment.” Durkheim on politics and the state. Ed. Anthony Giddens. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986. Jasper, James M.The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography and Creativity in Social Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997 Kowk, Abigail and Nestor P. Burgos, Jr. “First killing of activist under Aquino con- demned.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. July 5, 2010. Kwiatkowski, Lynn. “Feminist struggles for feminist nationalism in the Philippines.” Feminist Nationalism. New York: Routledge, 1997. Mendoza, Amado, ‘”People Power” in the Philippines, 1983-86’, in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.). Civil Resistance and Power Politics:The Experience of Non- violent Action from Gandhi to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. UN Human Rights Council. Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Philip Alston : Addendum : Mission to Philippines. 16 April 2008. A/ HRC/8/3/Add.2, U.S. State Department. “Philippines.” Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2010. The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. All other quotes and data are from personal interviews conducted in the Philippines in June and July of 2010. 72