The Pagl<strong>at</strong> Moro Women’sLead Organiz<strong>at</strong>ion (PMWLO)The Pagl<strong>at</strong> Moro Women’s Lead Organiz<strong>at</strong>ion (PMWLO) has 240 members bothMNLF and MILF including some 35 widows with five to eight children. It is ledby Lubaida Litigan Manson, a sanitary inspector with the government’s ruralhealth unit (RHU).PMWLO particip<strong>at</strong>ed in the drawing up of a women’s situ<strong>at</strong>ioner for theNAP focusing on four concerns: health, educ<strong>at</strong>ion, economic, and w<strong>at</strong>erand sanit<strong>at</strong>ion. PMWLO members live in barangays loc<strong>at</strong>ed around the220,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh th<strong>at</strong> straddles three provinces includingMaguindanao. Many families farm rice and other crops during the dry seasonand fish during the wet season. But heavy rains trigger devast<strong>at</strong>ing floods,disrupting normal daily activities such as children’s schooling.Lubaida recalls a time, not too long ago, when many PMWLO members didn’town cooking pots. They had to borrow clothes to <strong>at</strong>tend a wake.But starting 2012 onwards “May palayok na nakasabit, nakakapag-enrol, alagaanng mabuti, may ‘buntis p<strong>at</strong>rol’, health (services) pupunta sa kanila (There is acooking pot hanging in the kitchen, the kids are able to enroll, they are wellcared for, there is a ‘pregnancy p<strong>at</strong>rol’, health services now come to them)”.Lubaida was speaking of the changes initi<strong>at</strong>ed when over a hundred PMWLOmembers joined the government’s Pantawid program providing health andeduc<strong>at</strong>ion subsidies to poor families.PMWLO’s nexus with NAP has also provided skills training and livelihoodopportunities such as w<strong>at</strong>er lily weaving and fiber processing courtesy ofthe provincial government and Villar Found<strong>at</strong>ion. Sixty members of RuralImprovement Clubs around the Liguasan Marsh area particip<strong>at</strong>ed (PMWLOwomen are also RIC members). The marsh abounds in w<strong>at</strong>er lily and w<strong>at</strong>erhyacinth th<strong>at</strong> can be processed and woven into m<strong>at</strong>s, baskets, fans andslippers. The British development agency Oxfam don<strong>at</strong>ed P1 M to PMWLO forsanitary toilets and capital. Villar Found<strong>at</strong>ion ordered a million woven m<strong>at</strong>sfor Yolanda typhoon victims in Leyte. PMWLO members produced close to 400m<strong>at</strong>s earning them P56,000.Their newfound earning power and capacity to cre<strong>at</strong>e products functionaland beautiful come with a strong sense of self, and a desire to keep theirhouseholds, including toilets, clean. Some old problems are being addressedbut others remain, for instance, marketing of the women’s woven crafts.For another, when the rogue rebel group BIFF <strong>at</strong>tacks, Pagl<strong>at</strong> becomes anevacu<strong>at</strong>ion zone, rice fields are abandoned, interrupting harvest and disruptinglivelihood. As well, there is a need to straighten up regional Pantawidaccounts and address the problem of delayed, reduced or missing remittances.Nevertheless the PMWLO women led by Lubaida hope in a future th<strong>at</strong> willprovide their children with basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, educ<strong>at</strong>ion andhealth care.by Kadtuntaya Found<strong>at</strong>ion, Inc., andsupported by European developmentagencies. Engaged in peace,children’s rights and environmental(particularly of Liguasan Marsh)advocacies, AK is a major partner inNAP. Pagl<strong>at</strong> municipality has alloc<strong>at</strong>edAK a spanking new modest structurefor its use. According to BainotKalanganan, children’s organizer, AKactivities employ cre<strong>at</strong>ive methodssuch as film showing, photo exhibits,the<strong>at</strong>er skills training and others inits community educ<strong>at</strong>ion sessions andcampaigns.Similarly, Child Alert Intern<strong>at</strong>ionalhas helped NAP by training municipalsocial welfare officers through 51community sessions in evacu<strong>at</strong>ioncenters and host communities in14 barangays, in conjunction withthe Commission on Human Rightsand the Philippine N<strong>at</strong>ional Police.Rural Improvement Clubs (RICs) haveserved as the basic rural women’sorganiz<strong>at</strong>ion for long decades now,their vital presence felt once morewhen the NAP tapped RICs for skillstraining last year and other activities.Still, the Maguindanao NAP needs toreach out to more CSOs and NGOs forgre<strong>at</strong>er impact and effectiveness.Men as champions and supportstaffGender and development is premisedon more equitable male-femalerel<strong>at</strong>ions. If, as they say, charitybegins <strong>at</strong> home, advocacy of andsupport for NAP-cum-GAD must startwith men in government. With Tungaand Pol Amp<strong>at</strong>uan are young malepoliticians who prioritize the needsof their constituents, including andespecially, poor women.The tragic circumstances surroundingGov. Esmael (Toto) Mangudad<strong>at</strong>u’sgubern<strong>at</strong>orial bid and victory are24 KABABAIHAN<strong>at</strong>KAPAYAPAAN March 2015
assumed primary responsibility forchild care.Radjah Buayan Mayor Zamzamin L. Amp<strong>at</strong>uan (left) andMaguindanao Gov. Esmael (Toto) G. Mangudad<strong>at</strong>u (right)known to most: election-rel<strong>at</strong>edviolence th<strong>at</strong> killed scores of people,including his wife.Gov. Mangudad<strong>at</strong>u’s eight-pointdevelopment agenda begins withrestor<strong>at</strong>ion of peace and order. Hebelieves th<strong>at</strong> development cannottake root and flourish without peace.The absence of peace hits hardest themost vulnerable: women, children,elderly. In his third and final termas Buluan mayor, Gov. Mangudad<strong>at</strong>uundertook the building of marketstalls, 500 altogether, benefitingmostly women, as well as livelihoodtraining, and micro-lending forwomen.The second point is transparent,accountable and particip<strong>at</strong>ivegovernance. People who trustgovernment will not rebel, but whenthere is armed conflict, womenare forced into the role of (sole)breadwinner. This, says the governor,is where women’s empowermentbegins, followed by leadership,entrepreneurial training and financialliteracy.to Maguindanao and winning asRadjah Buayan mayor in 2013. RadjahBuayan was first to respond to theprovincial call for NAP localiz<strong>at</strong>ion inmunicipalities. Proof of his hands-onapproach to governance is a weeklyreligious leaders’ forum after Fridayprayers to consult with some 40mosque leaders.Affirm<strong>at</strong>ion of gender equality comeseasy to Zamzamin who grew up <strong>at</strong> theknee of a revered grandmother whoheld no formal position in politics buthad the skill and smarts to influencemale leaders and politicians in sixadjoining municipalities. This whileraising a brood of over ten children inan unconventional household whereher husband was provider and alsoZamzamin says th<strong>at</strong> half of RadjahBuayan’s GAD fund will go tolivelihood programs for poor womenwhom he witnessed, as barangaycouncilor, as “having too manyburdens with less resources, lesscapacities … (thus) with no incomeand no leverage in decision making”.Women’s economic empowermenttherefore is a cornerstone of themunicipality’s NAP-GAD program,which will also encompass spiritualvalues and will be medi<strong>at</strong>ed throughwh<strong>at</strong> he considers to be culturallyappropri<strong>at</strong>e.Lumpingan and the women’sand children’s centerA st<strong>at</strong>ely three-storey building, thenewly-inaugur<strong>at</strong>ed Women andChildren’s Center in Buluan, homebase of Gov. Mangudad<strong>at</strong>u, was builtwith an P8 million from the n<strong>at</strong>ionalgovernment and double th<strong>at</strong> amountas provincial counterpart. Twomore storeys will soon be added tothe structure with the ground floordesign<strong>at</strong>ed for offices, and other floorsfor livelihood training for women,housing for trauma victims, a c<strong>at</strong>eringbusiness for self-sustainability; andmore.Another male gender championis Zamzamin Amp<strong>at</strong>uan, a formerstudent activist and civil engineeringgradu<strong>at</strong>e, who held various n<strong>at</strong>ionalgovernment posts before returningJudith H. Anam, Kagawad, Bgy. Blensong, Upi (left) and Amelita A. Piang,founder, UWFIMarch 2015KABABAIHAN<strong>at</strong>KAPAYAPAAN25
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