State of the Nation Address

State of the ‘Nanays’

Posted July 21, 2009 23:44:00(Mla Time)

Philippine Daily Inquirer
Rina Jimenez-David

Anticipating the State of the Nation Address next Monday is another SONA, the “State of the Nanay Address” taking place this afternoon at the University of the Philippines Bahay ng Alumni.

This alternative SONA is born of civil society’s “frustration over the deliberate sidetracking of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill in Congress,” said Elizabeth Angsioco, secretary general of the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN), composed of various organizations involved in reproductive health and women’s rights. “We are clueless as to whether the President will acknowledge the importance of the bill’s passage in her official SONA,” added Angsioco, and the “State of the Nanay Address,” she said, is the group’s way of pointing out that the reproductive health of mothers, children, women and men is as important as her other priorities.

Since it’s doubtful if the President will even deign to mention reproductive health in her SONA (she is said to be “allergic” to the term which is commonly used in the United Nations and by the rest of the world), the alternative SONA could also be a way of informing the Filipino public just how mothers have been faring under the Arroyo administration.

It has often been mentioned in this space that an average of 11 Filipino women die every day in this country due to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. If the kidnap and rape of the young daughter of a narcotics agent can so enrage the President as to make her reconsider her long-standing policy against carrying out the death penalty, shouldn’t the daily, preventable deaths of 11 women move her in equal measure? After all, she is a woman, a mother, and a grandmother. Maternal deaths are very much a part of reproductive health.

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THOUGH the “State of the Nanay Address” is a “cute” way of highlighting reproductive health issues in this season of the SONA and of anti-SONA protests, it will consist of factual presentations and testimonials on the real-life challenges faced by men and women and families.

Ben de Leon, president of The Forum for Family Planning and Development, another sponsor of the alternative SONA, says that while portions of the “spoof” are “satirical and entertaining, there is nothing funny about the state of our mothers and children. We are outraged that so many lives are lost because of selfishness, politics and personal ambition.”

He was, doubtless, referring to the abandonment of many pending measures, the RH bill among them, to give way to the “railroading” of the House resolution calling for the holding of a constituent assembly, presumably to extend the President’s stay in Malacañang.

Still, advocates of the RH bill are not giving up just yet on the passage of this landmark legislation. Ramon San Pascual, executive director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), declares that “the battle for the reproductive health bill has been long and arduous but it has the support of the public as shown in various survey results.”

They are likewise still holding to the promise of Speaker Prospero Nograles that the RH bill would be passed before the 14th Congress ends, San Pascual added.

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WOMEN will also be at the helm of another anti-SONA protest this Sunday, July 26, when delegations from Quezon City educational institutions, communities and organizations gather before the National Housing Authority office (across the Quezon Memorial Circle) for “Tindig Kababaihan: Tindig, Lakad, Takbo Laban sa Con-Ass (Women Take a Stand: Stand, Walk and Run against Con-Ass).”

Assembly time is 7:30 a.m., and the activity, which will see participants walking or running from the Elliptical Road to Miriam College (via C.P. Garcia and Katipunan Avenue) is expected to wind up by noon.

Some of the organizers animatedly discussed the details of the protest action, including how groups will be “color coded” according to the organizing entity: green for Miriam College, blue for Ateneo de Manila University, maroon for UP and violet for women’s groups, a number of which have joined in organizing the march. Husbands or partners, boyfriends, children and even pets are welcome to join.

The overall atmosphere they wish to create, said the organizers, is a pleasant family outing on a Sunday morning, albeit one pursuing a serious issue: the scuttling of the constituent assembly and the holding of free, democratic, transparent and orderly elections next year.

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SOME of us “women of a certain age” volunteered to be counted among the “tindig” delegation, arthritic joints and hypertensive conditions preventing us from actually walking or running the distance. We will see off the more mobile and fit participants at the starting line, and then welcome them warmly at the finish line.

In fact, we joked, the physical exertions of the various delegations could be measured by the length of their speeches at the gathering’s closing ceremonies, with those who merely sent off the runners and walkers and waited for them at the finish line delivering the longest exhortations, while those who had run from the Circle to Miriam are capable at the end only of shouting their slogans.

Then again, we may laugh at our own personal limits and physical shortcomings, but recognize that there’s nothing funny about the political risks we confront today. We may try to be lighthearted in our protests, but we’re serious about our opposition to official impunity. Even if we look like we’re having the time of our lives. Even if we put on a smile because sometimes it gets tiring being so angry all of the time.