sexandsensibilities.com

by Ana P. Santos

People have a tendency to judge others by the relationships that they have or how their relationships began. In this series, Sex and Sensibilities.com takes a look at how relationships are impacted by a world that is becoming smaller and smaller as technology becomes more ubiquitous.  The more modern and hi-tech we become as a society, the more evident it is that our  relationships are hinged on old-fashioned values of love and respect.

A meal ticket.

A one way airline ticket out of the Philippines.

A ticket to a better life.

Whether one would like to admit it or not, it wasn’t long ago when an inter-racial relationship, one between a foreign man and a Filipina was synonymous to those words. It was perceived to be a utilitarian relationship of commerce rather than feelings, of transactional needs rather than intimate bonds.

But things are slowly changing.

Low-cost airfare and migration have broken geographical borders in many ways. Younger foreign men can now extend their stop-over from other neighboring countries to our shores. More Filipinas are traveling for business, leisure or education and are being exposed to different cultural backgrounds. The global melting pot has blurred the lines defining and thus, segregating one race from another.

Perhaps nothing has changed the landscape of the way we engage in relationships more than the Internet and social media. It is now possible to have a relationship with someone even before you meet in person.  Distance, race and even time difference are just all minor nuisances instead of factors that would spell the end of a relationship.

But, as Alice and Joyce will tell you, much still has to be done about breaking down stereotypes and prejudices that besiege inter-racial relationships. These two women share intimate details about their inter-racial relationships, both of which were started and nurtured on-line. Precisely because of the stigma that surrounds on-line inter-racial relationships, both have requested to keep their identity secret. Now, their stories are still perceived to be unconventional and rare. But as technology advances, human relationships will move into the same direction and on-line relationships will just be another case of boy-meets-girl.

Alice, 25
Fashion Designer
Transexual Woman

Oliver and I met online. It is a more convenient form of meeting people for me since I can easily screen the sincere ones from the “chasers” or those who just want to have fun. It is also easier for me to tell the person about me being a transsexual woman or transwoman. It is also safer for me to tell them online because I don’t have to be afraid of a negative reaction that might potentially lead to  a hate crime.

We were talking online for six months and then he flew to the Philippines to meet me. It wasn’t awkward meeting him face to face for the first time. It felt like he just went on a trip somewhere and came back to me.

At first, Oliver didn’t really know much about transgender issues; that’s why our relationship started with me giving him a Transgender101 orientation.

Oliver and I have been together 1 year and 9 month; 14 of those months were spent living together here. Culturally, he was able to adjust very well and sometimes even calls himself a “Gernoy” (German + Pinoy).  He eats most of the Philippine dishes I serve him and is not too picky or spoiled. Oliver also got to know my family, which is a huge step for me especially since my family was initially not open to the fact that I am a transwoman. In time, they were able to accept and treat Oliver as part of the family.

Being in a relationship with a foreigner really takes a while to get used to. First of all, Oliver’s mother tongue is not English. During the first few months, we had some difficulty communicating. He learned to master English and I also studied basic German.

But more than that, other issues that we have to deal with as an inter-racial couple have to do with stereotypes and prejudice a relationship between a foreign guy and a transwoman here in the Philippines.

Since my gender identity, appearance and behavior is female and Oliver sees me as a woman, we consider our relationship as a heterosexual one. Most of the time, people think since I was assigned male at birth and Oliver is male, we are in a gay relationship. This is frustrating for Oliver because he was never attracted to men. Although we have no problems with people in gay relationships, we don’t want our relationship to be labeled as such.

Whenever we go out in public, we get stares from people. We first get noticed because he is a foreigner with a Filipina. Then, they realize that I am a transwoman and start talking about us and staring. The dynamics of the two really make us stick out like a sore thumb in public. We don’t need that unwanted attention. We want the quiet life that most people take for granted.

Sometimes I don’t go near him or hold his hand in public to avoid the stares and the negative attention. I also talk to him in German so that people will have the impression that I come from Europe and hopefully lessen the severity of their judgment.

It’s hard for Oliver to see how people treat me. It also brings out the worst in me because it makes me more insecure about myself and very paranoid about what people would say about us.

Some of them think that I am a sex worker and Oliver is my client or I am just using Oliver as my meal ticket. Many times in bars, both men and women would go up to Oliver and tell him that I am a transwoman or other assorted names like “ladyboy”. He would silence them by telling them that I am his wife and show them our matching rings.

It is very demeaning for me.  I am well-educated, I graduated cum laude from a private school and yet, even street beggars belittle me because I am a transwoman.

It has been not an easy journey for us, especially for Oliver. Seeing my struggles has made us decide to live somewhere out of the Philippines. We want to go to a place where society would not discriminate or judge people because of the choices they make. I believe that the Philippine society is one of the reasons why most transwomen choose to live in another country–so we can live a quiet—or what we call a “stealth”– life. I wouldn’t mind living in the Philippines if only the discerning people showed some respect and compassion towards transwomen.

It also made me realize that the Philippines has a lot of growing up to do when it comes to acceptance.

Currently, we are in the process of applying for a fiancée visa so that I would be able to go to Germany with Oliver. I do love my country, but it is better for me to leave so that I can live my life in a nurturing and dignified environment, where I, and the choices that I’ve made, are respected.

Author’s Note: Last week, Donald Trump overruled the disqualification of transsexual woman, Jenna Talackova. A statement released by Mr. Trump’s office read:

“The Miss Universe Organization will allow  Jenna Talackova to compete in the 2012 Miss Universe Canada pageant provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada.” This was considered a small triumph for the global LGBT community in their continued fight against discrimination. Here in the Philippines, the decision was met with skepticism and disappointment. It is hoped that this story was help others understand some of the issues that transwomen continue to face.

Photo source: Wikipedia

        

Author’s name withheld upon request

I remember reading about violence experienced by young girls at the hands of their boyfriends when I was around 12 years old. I think I read it in Seventeen magazine.

I remember thinking, “Wow. And to think he’s just a boyfriend.  I would never let that happen to me.”

But it was already happening to me. At home, I witnessed my father hurt my mother; with words, with fists, sometimes just with the contemptuous look he would use to silence her.

It continued happening to me–when I had my first relationship at 19 and when I remedied that relationship by making it into a marriage.

I was one of those who looked down on women who stayed in abusive relationships. I thought of them to be weak, needy and plain stupid until I became one of them.

Then I began to understand that there are several misconceptions about domestic violence, starting with the term “domestic violence”. “Domestic” suggests that it only happens to people who are living together or are married.

When it first happened to me, I didn’t even know what to call it. It wasn’t—couldn’t be–domestic violence. Did shoving, throwing my stuff around because I “wasn’t listening to him” or “looking at him as he spoke to me”, grabbing—which is how it started–domestic violence?

Back then, it seemed too petty to be classified as that.  Even if I did know what to call it, I didn’t know what to do or who to go to. It was the ‘90s, there was no internet, no laws. Republic Act 9262, which defined violence and institutionalized protection methods such as a restraining order was only passed in 2004.

There were other things that I didn’t know, like how intimate partner (the new term as of the new millennium) violence always starts with the little things like pushing and shoving and how not saying anything or not walking away is tantamount to allowing the violence to happen again and again.

And most importantly, I did not know how abuse at the hands of a beloved distorts your very perception of love.  The one who hurt me was also the one who told me he loved me; he was the same person who did unspeakable things to me and violated my basic feeling of being safe. It began to change me. I justified, rationalized and made excuses. How else could I describe the sudden rage that was matched in intensity by contrition and remorse?

It distorted my sense of right and wrong and it ate away at my self-esteem.  I left many times, once I even went out of the country. But I always came back. I didn’t think I deserved better.  I became dependent, longing for and needing the love and approval of my abuser.

Later, I learned that a woman in an abusive relationship leave, on an average, eight times, before leaving for good.

From the book, “Not to People Like Us”, I learned that seeking help is more difficult for women from an middle to upper class demographic because of the social pressure to project and protect a certain image and lifestyle.

But always, there is a way out.  It starts with first coming to terms with the fact hat you are being abused, knowing what what your options are and then taking action.

If you think you are in an abusive relationship, answer the questions in the links below to find out for sure. If someone you love and care about is in an abusive relationship, please share this information with them.

http://www.thehotline.org/is-this-abuse/am-i-being-abused-2/

http://www.nottopeoplelikeus.com/body/faq.html

In the Philippines, call the Women’s Desk of the Philippine National Police to get help. There is an all-female police force called Aleng Pulis (which literally means “Miss Police Officer) who are trained to handle crimes against women with sensitivity and discretion.

Philippine National Police-Aleng Pulis
Tel No. (632) 410-3113 (within office hours only)
Mobile: +63919-777-7377 (24 hours)

For counseling, call the Women’s Crisis Center at
Tel No. +63 2 922-5235, 8:00AM – 9:00PM

Photo from Datingish

        

Written by Anna Leah Sarabia

My Lola, Natividad Almeda Lopez, was the first woman in the country to join the Bureau of Justice as a lawyer, and the first to become judge, and eventually Justice of the CA when she retired. For a long time, she was Executive Judge of the City of Manila, before the Juvenile and Family Relations Court was created with her presiding.

It seems that there was a time when she even had a court that was open at night.  So it was in this context that numerous cases of vagrancy would be brought before her.

I heard “bagansya” first when I was very young, because, having been raised an asthmatic child in Sampaloc, Manila, my parents would take us often enough to Luneta, and by the sea wall we would eat my favorite delicacy: Balut!  Sometimes, my father would drive to the end of Dewey Blvd to Baclaran, and we would walk to the people who sold Barbeque by the beach.  Of course, despite the fact that we were there as a family, there would still be gay men who would chat with my handsome dad, and while women sat in the shadows.  It was in this context, while eating Barbeque, that I sensed some fear of people being caught. For talking to my parents? Or for selling barbeque? I had no idea.  But it was like that, and our happy evening treks to Baclaran or Luneta sometimes had to end abruptly.

Many years later, my mother mentioned to me that the lab tech in the hospital my Lola founded was sent to school by Lola because she got tired of seeing him at her courts.  I asked, “Why? Was he a bad man?  Isn’t he very mabait?”  Mom told me that he was a beautician, and he was arrested several times for “bagansya.”

That word again. “Vagrancy,” Mom said in English, while she tried to explain.  So many were sent to Lola’s courts, but she didn’t have the heart to punish any of them, and set them free with a promise from them to reform.  I must have been 10 or 11 by then, but I still couldn’t understand what was wrong with people walking around Luneta at night, since we obviously used to enjoy our strolls.

Decades later, I encountered the word again, because some feminist lawyers had been working to have Vagrancy decriminalized. It really would have made my grandmother’s caseload more manageable in the 50s and 60s if poor women and gays were treated like everyone else, allowed to go where they wanted to go, and talk to whomever they need to talk to.

Why indeed would men like Noynoy Aquino and Chiz Escudero really still want another reason to control poor women if they can’t even give them a chance to live decently?

Next week, let us take a walk at night, and demand that our government stop arresting women already for an inanely concocted “crime” which police continue to harass them for.  Take back the night on 3 April at 6pm in Mendiola.

“Mary Magdalene Contemplating the Crown of Thorns” by Michelangelo

Invitation to Take Back the Night!

        

With black and purple ribbons tied in their arms during a press conference today, authors and supporters call on Congress to pave the way for the passage of the decade long pending Reproductive Health (RH) bill and make it see the light of day.

Ramon San Pascual, Executive Director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc. (PLCPD), expressed the collective dismay of various groups who strongly believe that enacting a comprehensive law on RH bill will give poor women access to much needed RH education and services and eventually will help elevate their health, economic and social status.

“The RH bill, which has been filed and re-filed since the 10^th Congress never got the chance to reach the voting period and see the light of day for our women,” said San Pascual. “RH supporters have witnessed how leaders of Congress succumbed to the whims of some bishops and Catholic leaders, thus continuing the delay of the bill,” he added.

San Pascual laments that RH continues to take a back seat particularly now that the President wants to pay primary attention to impeachment.   For a while Speaker Belmonte and Majority Floor Leader wanted to close the debate on RH bill this March, the month of women.   But the President thinks it’s better to do it in May since closing the debate before the Lenten season may antagonize the Bishops.

The RH bill has been debated for so long, all possible rational questions have been asked and repeatedly answered, there is no need to finish the long list of interpellators that never show up during their turn, he explained.  “Clearly, the anti-RH main strategy is to delay the process until we ran out of time, until election period sets in again,” he said.

According to San Pascual, the lives of women, particularly of poor women are endangered.  Recent Department of Health (DOH) report revealed that 50 mothers have died in a month and that is only in Manila. Yesterday, news of abandoned new-born babies in Quezon City and Davao came out in the media. Citing a report from UNICEF, lack of services and information about adolescent RH are fuelling the rise of teen pregnancies and hurting child survival rates, San Pascual asks, “what could be more glaring than that?  Clearly, we have a problem in reproductive health concerns of mothers, young people, among poor couples particularly.”

Congress has to pass the RH bill now, under this administration, before it becomes too late and that we end up deeply buried in problems related to health, economic and social status of women, he ended.

 For clarifications please contact, Vigie Benosa-Llorin at mobile no. 0918-2936786.       

This is a press release from the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc.

        

This article was originally published in the IRIN News website.

Jenny, 19, and her second child. Photo: Ana Santos/IRIN

MANILA, 15 March 2012 (IRIN) – Lack of services and information about adolescent reproductive health are fuelling the rise of teen pregnancies and hurting child survival rates, according to health experts.

“Teenage pregnancy is becoming a great problem in the country. These young mothers are unable to give quality care to their babies, hence these babies usually are sickly and malnourished,” Jacqueline Kitong, reproductive health adviser in the Philippines for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), told IRIN.

Children born of a teenage mother have a 50 percent higher risk of dying than those whose mothers are older, according to the World Health Organization.

About one-third of all pregnancies in the Philippines occur between the ages of 15 and 24, said Kitong. By age 20, about 25 percent of all women of childbearing age have children or are pregnant, according to the most recent government Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality study from 2002.

Childbearing in this age group boosts the risk of infant and child mortality as well as maternal mortality and sickness, according to the government’s most recent nationwide health survey in 2008.

As a woman’s level of formal education and income rises, so do her child’s chances of survival; the under-five mortality rate for children of mothers with no education was 136 deaths per 1,000 live births, versus 18 deaths per 1,000 live births for children whose mothers were university educated.

One-third of the women who have had a child before age 18 belong to the poorest quintile, compared with only 6 percent of richer women, noted the World Bank in a 2011 reproductive health survey.

The mother’s age also played a role, with under-five mortality rates higher among those aged 20 or younger as well as those aged 40-49.

Myths

Kitong said the problem lay in not addressing adolescents’ basic health questions.

“There is poor, inadequate and suppressed awareness on fertility, adolescent sexuality and development. Some of them don’t even know why they got pregnant because they don’t know how their body works,” said Kitong.

“A lot of the girls who come in to see us say they want to try family planning methods, but only after having their first child,” said Ami Evangelista-Swanepol, executive director of a public health clinic serving women and children in the country’s southern island of Palwan. “Like birth control is an afterthought.”

Now 19 years old, Jenny* gave birth to her first child at 16. When asked about family planning or birth control, she looked up blankly and asked: “Isn’t that just for married people?” She lives with but is not married to the children’s father.

According to 2006 data from the US-based reproductive health think-tank, Guttmacher Institute, there are an estimated 3.1 million pregnancies every year in the Philippines.

About 15 percent, or about 473,000, end in illegal abortions.

In 2006, a sex education programme starting at the primary school level introduced by the Education Department and UNFPA was met with outrage by the Catholic church.

“We started the programme at the grade four level because it is at that age that some girls start to menstruate. The curriculum was more focused on development strategies to cope with the changes their body is undergoing,” explained Kitong.

While the programme was implemented in a number of test sites, a planned nationwide roll-out to all primary schools was halted.

*Not her real name

        

Valentine’s was a nice day to start making LOVE and PEACE, especially down in the Brazilian region.

And as promised, here are the people who gave the best answers on “Why should I make love and peace and not war in my Brazilian region this Valentine’s day?”

1) Erin Joan C. Yang
2) Precie Catherine Cuarto
3) Manila Matt

Congratulations to the following for winning our Peace Promo with the Strip! You all win a box of PEACE, a specially formulated serum that will instantly soothe your skin from any irritation after a Brazilian wax.

Please email us at sexandsensibilities@gmail.com your mailing addresses.

        

This article was originally published in Rappler. 

by Ana P.  Santos

MANILA, Philippines – “I want to be a scientist…” says Laura Jane Duran. Like most 15-year-olds, Duran dreams about what she would like to be when she grows up.

But Duran had to stop schooling when she got pregnant last year. Now, she lives with her husband, Jason, and his family in a shanty in Baseco, Tondo, Manila.

“I don’t know if I can still go back to school,” she says.

According to the National Demographic and Health Survey of 2008, in the Philippines, 10% of girls like Duran who are between the ages of 15-19, become pregnant with their first child.

Teen pregnancy rate is 53 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15-19, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says in its 2011 annual report.

The Philippines has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies among its neighbors and is well above the Asia Pacific average of 34 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15-19.

Little or no knowledge

Prior to getting pregnant, Duran says she did not know anything about birth control.

Today, when it comes to birth spacing and family planning options, she defers to her husband. “He said I should just go on the pill,” she says.

When asked which birth control method she preferred, she was surprised by the question and the option it offered her. She had to think for a moment before answering, “I want to get injectables because they said that it’s easy and will last for months.”

It may not be easy for Duran and her husband to get injectables though.

In the city of Manila, they are not available for free and with Jason’s inconsistent employment as a laborer, injectables, which cost an average of P100 or more, would not be affordable to the couple.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a US-based reproductive health research organization, contraceptive use has hardly increased in the Philippines over the past decade.

And as a result, women are having, on average, about one more child than they would like.

According to the 2010 Guttmacher report, “Facts on Barriers to Contraceptive Use in the Philippines,”  the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was the largest contributor to Philippine public contraceptive services for several decades.

In a bid for contraceptive self-reliance, USAID began to phase out support in 2004 and ended in 2008. The withdrawal of all of USAID’s contraceptive support has forced women to buy contraceptives at local pharmacies and bear the cost themselves.

The higher cost is equated with reduced or zero access, especially among young women like Duran.

No national legislation

In the absence of a national law to standardize and create universal access to reproductive health care services and appropriate budgets, local government units have drafted and implemented their own local policies.

In Manila, where Duran lives, an executive order banning contraceptives in the city of Manila was passed in 2000 by then Mayor Lito Atienza.

Atienza is also the former president of Pro-Life Philippines, a non-profit organization that promotes the exclusive use of natural birth control methods such as the rhythm method for family planning purposes.

The ordinance has long been a sore spot between the city of Manila and women’s and human rights groups who filed but lost a civil case versus Atienza. In addition, they have held dialogues with the Manila City Health Office and Lim, who succeeded Atienza.

Last November 2011, there seemed to be a reprieve when the Manila City Health Office signed EO 30 entitled, “Further Strengthening Family Planning Services,” a copy of which was obtained by Rappler (see ordinance below).

It clearly says that birth control choices are left up to the couple, as responsible parents.

Reading from the ordinance, Dr Rolinda Gante, chief of reproductive health of the Manila City Health Department, says, “Family planning [FP] is left to be the choice of the couple and our doctors are allowed to counsel and give advice on all FP methods.”

“But we will not be able to give patients supplies [condoms, pills] because the City will not use its funds to procure these,” Gante explains.

However, the city will be open to receiving donations from the Department of Health (DOH) and other NGOs.

This, says Gante, is already an improvement from the previous administration.

“At least now we can accept donations. Under Atienza, everything [regarding modern contraception] was forbidden,” she says.

Support without funds

The ordinance has not satisified women’s rights groups.

“The repeal of Atienza’s EO 003 was the hope and the expectation. We were hoping for funding, for support and collaboration with the city government,” says Dr Junice Melgar, executive order of Likhaan Women’s Health.

“The cudgels of providing for RH services will again fall on the NGOs when it should also be the responsibility of the local government to fund these initiatives. How can you say you support something, but are not willing to fund it?” asks Melgar.

Gante admits that while the ordinance is already more lenient, it does pose limitations.

“Even if we will allow counseling on modern contraception and can give out condoms and pills—provided that they were not bought using city funds—currently, we don’t have supplies. There have been no donations yet,” says Gante.

Services like vasectomies and tubal ligation will also be difficult for Manila residents to avail of. According to Gante, the doctors who were trained to perform vasectomy are all set to retire. No new doctors were trained during the 9-year term of Atienza (1998-2007).

The same is true for tubal ligations. The procedure requires mini-labs as a sterile location. These mini-labs were closed during Atienza’s administration.

Other health services that Manila offers its constituents are for free, says Gante.

“We offer free hospitalization and birthing services in all 6 of our district hospitals. We offer free medicine at all of our health centers. The price of pills and condoms is minimal compared to that,” she explains.

Better than nothing

“It’s a start,” says Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Etta Rosales, who sees the new ordinance as positive.

“This new ordinance shows that Mayor Lim allowed the rectification of EO 003. From here, we can introduce rights-based approaches to primary health care and RH,” Rosales says.

“Once they [Manila City government] see that these services are beneficial to their constituents, then they may become more receptive to other RH programs,” says Rosales.

During dialogues between CHR, a reproductive rights and health organization based in the University of the Philippines in Manila, women’s groups and the Manila City Health officials and Lim, CHR and ReproCen submitted proposed amendments to the prohibitive EO 003.

Admitting that the new executive order is not exactly what they had proposed during their discussions, Beth Pangalangan of ReproCen says, “It has fallen short of our expectations, but it’s better than nothing.”

But Pangalangan is quick to point out that the new ordinance doesn’t mean that the civil case of Lourdes Osil, et al. vs Mayor of Manila, is now all but forgotten.

Pursue the case

On the contrary, the civil case filed by 20 respondents in 2008 contesting the constitutionality of EO 003 will still be pursued, albeit in another court. 

“The rights of our litigants were still violated. We have exhausted all domestic remedies,” says Pangalangan, referring to the appeal filed before the Supreme Court, which was dismissed in 2008.

“We will file the motion at CEDAW [Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women] International Tribunal. While there is no retribution to be expected, there will be a lot of international pressure on our government to see EO 003 as a clear violation of the international treaties that the Philippines is a signatory of.”

“We hope this action will also stress the importance of the RH Bill. If passed into law, it would provide for national legislation that would override inconsistencies in implementation of RH and family planning ordinances at the municipality level,” Pangalangan says.

Addressing inconsistencies in RH policies just might spell the difference between Laura Jane Duran and her neighbor, Rosalie Cabinyan, who, similar to Duran, had her first child at 16.

Cabinyan ended up having 22 children, when she wanted only 3. -Rappler.com

        

This note was shared by Rolando Tolentino on Facebook.

Special Issue on Queer Media and Representations
Issue Editor:  Rolando B. Tolentino
Issue Release:  Agosto 2012

Call for papers:

This issue will tackle theoretical analyses, interventions, and interrogations of queer media and its representations.  It will analyze the issues of heteronormativity, performativity, performance, hegemony-building, consensus-making, subversions, production of discourse, and radical politics, among others beyond the usual issues and categories of gender and sexuality.  If queer is the liminality of gender and sexuality– under the usual regime of heteronormativity–the papers in this special issue correlate the notions of simultaneity of power and powerless-ness, dominance and subversions, social and everyday histories and performances.  The special issue is open to the following topics and themes:

• Alternative/queer reception of icons, stars and events
• Critique of masculinity
• Interrogation of queer in the Philippines and elsewhere
• Queer performances
• Transnational queer praxis
• Everyday queer praxis
• n  Formation of a subcultural queer identity
• n  Queer politics:  possibilities and limits
• n  Queer spaces
• n  Queer contestations
• n  Queer media spheres
• n  Queer representations in media
• n  “Queer media”

Papers can be in English or Filipino (around 1500 words).  Deadline for submission is March 30, 2012.  Please email papers to plarideljournal@gmail.com.
—-

Spesyal na isyu hinggil sa Queer Media at Representasyon
Isyu Editor:  Rolando B. Tolentino
Issue Release:  Agosto 2012

Panawagan para sa mga papel:

Ang isyu ay tatalakay sa mga teoretikal na pagsusuri at interogasyon ng queer sa media at representasyon nito.  Susuriin ang mga isyu ng heteronormativity, performatibo, performans, subersyon at radikal na politika na lampas sa pangkaraniwang araling pangkasarian at sexualidad.   Kung ang queer ay ang liminalidad ng kasarian at sexualidad, ang rekurso sa pamamayagpag ng heteronormativity, ang mga papel ay inaasahang makapagbigay korelasyon sa nosyon ng simultaneidad ng kapangyarihan at pagtatanghal nito.  Ang ilan sa mga paksang bukas ang isyu ay ang mga sumusunod:

• Alternatibong resepsyon ng mga icon, artista at kaganapan (event)
• Kritika ng maskulinidad
• Interogasyon ng queer sa Pilipinas at iba pang lugar
• Transnasyonal na queer praxis
• Pang-araw-araw na pagtatanghal ng queer praxis
• Formasyon ng subkultural na queer na identidad
• Queer na espasyo at ang kontestasyon nito
• Queer na tanghal
• Queer na media
• Queer na representasyon sa media

Maaring ang papel ay sa Ingles o Filipino (1500 na salita).  Deadline sa pagsusubmite ng manuskrito ay Marso 30, 2012.   Ipadala ang papel sa plarideljournal@gmail.com.

        

This article was originally published in Rappler.

By Ana Santos

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — “It makes us happy to have a lot of children in the house,” Rosalie Cabinyan says in Filipino. “There is endless laughter and cheer with all of them moving about.”

“I guess the only time it gets difficult is during eating time. There’s never enough to eat.” Her cheerful tone changes; her eyes turn misty. “My grade 4 daughter cries when she’s hungry. Often, I have no food to give her so I just end up crying, too.”

Cabinyan, a 55-year-old housewife, lives in Baseco, Tondo, Manila, one of the poorest communities in the city, with her husband and their 17 children. Her husband works as a janitor.

Cabinyan has been pregnant 22 times, but 5 of her children died.

“I first got pregnant when I was 16 years old. We lived in a very remote part of Baseco then. There were health workers who would visit us and talk to us about family planning and birth spacing. I was open to it, but we lived so far that they could only visit once every three months,” Cabinyan recalls.

In between those visits, Cabinyan would get pregnant again. “I guess I’m just one of those women who gets pregnant easily,” she adds.

Cabinyan says that she and her husband had wanted to have only 3 children, but she was hesitant to try birth control.

“I’ve never tried pills or IUD because my friends told me that would be bad for my goiter,” she relates. And condoms, she says, looking shyly downward, were out of the question for her husband.

“The doctor already told me it is dangerous for me to keep on having more children, I think after my 4th or 5th child, but what can I do?” Cabinyan asks.

City ordinance

Cabinyan is one of the 5.25 million Filipino women who do not have access to contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a US-based reproductive health think tank that specializes in reproductive health care research.

In a May 2010 study entitled, “Facts on Barriers to Contraceptive Use in the Philippines,” Guttmacher found that women between the ages of 15-49 only want 2.4 children but end up having an average of 3.3.

Apart from the cost and lack of awareness, the study also showed that the most common reasons why women do not practice contraception are health concerns about contraceptive methods, including fear over their possible side effects. At least 44% reported these reasons in 2008, as did 41% in 2003.

In 2008, according to the United Nations Population Fund, an estimated 3.4 million Filipino women became pregnant, with 54% of them (around 1.9 million) having unintended pregnancies.

What makes it more difficult for women like Cabinyan is the fact that they live in Manila where a local city ordinance, Executive Order  003, is in place.

Under EO 003, enacted by then Mayor Lito Atienza in 2000, the City of Manila declares its “total commitment and support to the responsible parenthood movement.”

In this ordinance, responsible parenthood means promoting only natural forms of contraception for family planning.

In effect, none of the government hospitals and clinics in the city of Manila offer modern forms of contraception like condoms, pills and services like vasectomy and tubal ligation.

“Since the issuance of EO 003, there has been no procurement of products and services in city health centers and hospitals which are not in the category of natural family planning method,” says Dr. Junice Melgar, executive director of Likhaan Women’s Health.  Likhaan runs community health clinics in various parts of Manila.

‘Imposing Misery’

The women of Manila suffered during the implementation of the contraception ban.

In the report entitled, Imposing Misery, a collective study done by various women’s groups, including Likhaan, women had to resort to sleeping in separate homes from their husbands just to avoid having intercourse with them. Some husbands insinuated that their wives were having affairs and were beaten for refusing to have sex.

Others were advised by their health care provider to avoid additional pregnancies, but could not offer services like ligation. The women would be advised to transfer to another hospital, where they could have the procedure, but would have to pay for it.

Women’s groups and NGOs also suffered as a result.

“EO 003 meant that modern forms of contraception would not be funded by the city government. So NGOs and civil society groups had to fill in the gap when it came to reproductive health services. But even that was difficult. Many of our staff were harassed for conducting sexuality seminars or giving out condoms,” adds Melgar.

Going to court

In January 2008, a group of Manila residents, with the help of the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) and ReproCen, a reproductive rights and health organization based in the University of the Philippines in Manila, filed a class action suit against the City of Manila and the implementation of EO 003.

The case, Lourdes Osil et al. v. Mayor of Manila, with Beth Pangalangan as lead counsel, labeled  the provisions of EO 003 as a violation of various treaties that the Philippines is a signatory of. These include the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); various provisions found in the 1987 Constitution,; and the Magna Carta for Women of 2009.

“The City Council of Manila should immediately revoke EO 003, and ensure that artificial birth control devices, including birth control pills and injectables be made available to all adult citizens who are residents within its jurisdiction, in health centers and hospitals,” said a report signed by CHR Chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales.

Filed with the Court of Appeals, the case was dismissed in May 2011.

An appeal was filed before the Supreme Court in September 2008 but was also dismissed.

New hope

The groups however continued to hold dialogues with the Manila Health Office under Mayor Alfredo Lim (who defeated Atienza in 2007).

In November 2011, City Hall issued a new ordinance, EO 30, entitled “Further Strengthening Family Health Services.”

It clearly gives couples birth control choices, following the principle of responsible parenthood.

But what would this mean for the women of Manila? And for women like Rosalie Cabinyan who had had too many? - Rappler.com