Since 1984, women have been moving past what is expected of a Maria Clara. GABRIELA, a progressive Filipino party, organizes Filipino women toward a collective movement calling for reform. In the Cordilleras, INNABUYOG is the known alliance group of indigenous women's organizations that advocates equality for the people. However, in recent years, political vilification has put many lives on the line with state authorities branding anyone who opposes an enemy of the state.    

 

One of Cordi's indigenous women's rights defenders and staunch human rights activists is Innabuyog Gabriela’s former Vice Chairperson Beatrice “Betty” Belen. In 2020, she was illegally arrested in their house in Barangay Uma in Lubuagan, Kalinga by armed groups allegedly saying they confiscated three firearms in Belen's house.

 

Audrey Corce, Secretary General of Innabuyog Gabriela, re-draws the dark experience of Belen, citing how indigenous women like Belen, who is a community health worker and leader in her community, suffer from voicing out their rights. 

 

“Dapat hindi niya dinanas iyon, ‘yung nangyari sa kanya. That should not have happened kung sincere talaga ‘yung ating government na solusyunan ‘yung mga hinaing ng indigenous women in their communities. Lalong lalo doon na sa hinaing ng ‘our rights as indigenous people should be respected.’ Lalong lalo na when it comes to ‘yung right natin sa ancestral domain at saka sa self-determination,” said Corce.

 

Aside from illegal arrests and red-tagging, indigenous women also face struggles on their ancestral lands. Militarization and developmental projects like dams pose a big threat to women laborers as displacement of IPs almost always comes next to land grabbing.

 

The Gened 1 and 2 dam projects in Apayao, for example, are currently threatening IP communities by destroying their villages and ancestral lands. Since the majority of the population of Apayao depends on the river, the dam negatively impacts and destroys their grounds, floods their lands, and takes away their main sources of livelihood – fishermen, and farmers who are all dependent on the river. Numerous locals and IP organizations in the region have been opposing the project, but all their appeals are met with hostility. 

 

In the eyes of the incumbent University of the Philippines Baguio University Student Council College of Arts and Communication Representative Angelika Joven, land privatization and illegal logging, among others, worsen the already dismal situation of IPs in the North. 

 

“Nakakadismaya siyempre you would expect the government to actually help them have a better life pero ‘yung nangyayari ay sobrang kabaliktaran nito,” she added.

 

A female activist herself and a red-tagging victim, Joven emphasized how taking their advocacies to the streets is a right due for every Filipino.  For her, challenging oppressive power structures is no sin. 

 

The human rights defender also believed in the importance of the Cordillera women who stood up against the tyranny of Marcos Sr. One of these women is Luchie Maranan. In her martial law story, published in the Positively Filipino magazine, Maranan, a then-fresh UP Baguio graduate, moved to the countryside. For her, it was a time that called on the people to reclaim the power that was theirs to begin with.    

 

Until now, the influence of women like Maranan reminds Joven and her generation that the darkest days of the country saw the unwavering grit of women who braved the front lines. 

 

Concurrently, Corce added how women can have a great potential to effect change in the community and country. Collective strength and action, she mentioned, are what will prompt progressive, systemic action.

 

“We must not stop organizing ourselves,” said Audrey with full hopes and determination despite the worsening situation of the indigenous women of the Cordillera.

 

The celebration of women should not only take place during March. The true recognition of the rights of minorities goes beyond a month-long dedication. When women no longer have to ask for respect and resort to assertion just to claim their space, only then can we say that we have progressed as a people.

 

Since time immemorial, womanhood has battled against the status quo that othered women into weak, controllable beings whose only role in the world is reproduction. History shows, however, that for women, no barrier is high enough to silence the voice of those hungry for genuine change. Above our fears, there awaits a pipe dream that holds our collective longing for liberation. In the eyes of a woman, the battle of one is the battle of all.

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— Kyla Claire Abawag