Ms. Perla A. Sotelo, the President of the Region 1 Advocates for Gender Equality (RAGE-1), and Gender and Development (GAD) Focal Person of the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU) guested in the February 23, 2021 episode of Kapihan sa DMMMSU in celebration of Women’s Month.

RAGE-1 is an association of government agencies and Local Government Units (LGUs) that are represented by their GAD focal persons who are advocates for gender equality and gender and development in general.  It was established in October 2003 and has been conducting various programs and activities geared towards raising awareness on GAD issues, especially gender equality. 

“Gender equality does not only refer to women, but to all genders: male, female, LGBTQ, etc.,” explains Ms. Sotelo.  “Women are not really fighting against men when it comes to rights,” she added.  She said that it just so happened that gender equality was focused on women and their rights then because of the existing patriarchal society where men had all their rights and privileges and women did not.

This year’s theme for Women’s Month celebration: “Juana Laban sa Pandemya: Kaya!” is anchored in the international theme, “Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World”, which is all about the resiliency of women amid the pandemic.  Ms. Sotelo said that the current problems faced by women during this pandemic are anxiety, depression, and the rise of gender-based violence and domestic violence.

“While women are still trying to catch up with all those rights and privileges in our society, comes this pandemic.  Because of this pandemic, there are cases of discriminatory situations against women like the quarantine and lockdown that hamper their economic opportunities to go out and find a source of income for their families.  In some instances, women are discriminated against men because men are thought of as more resilient and stronger than women when it comes to the physicality of job seeking,” said Ms. Sotelo. 

When asked about the status of GAD implementation in Region 1 especially regarding gender equality, Ms. Sotelo said that we are still into perfection in implementing GAD programs. “Through the Philippine Council for Women, we are mandated to establish GAD focal systems which are committees that create plans and programs that will promote GAD advocacy like women’s rights, ending violence against women, and other sustainable development goals that are anchored on women and gender development,” she said.

Further, GAD focal persons and GAD coordinators are now being capacitated through trainings to further promote awareness on GAD, while extension activities are being conducted in various communities. “With the 5% GAD budget that is fused in the total GAA budget of government agencies, this will ensure the successful conduct of GAD activities to be implemented by government agencies and LGUs even down to the barangay level,” she said.

“In order to have a successful GAD advocacy in the region, administration support is needed. The lack of administration support (sometimes) and the lack of awareness among top management officials is one of our concerns.  This may be addressed through capability building and capacity enhancement that should start from the top to ensure that GAD activities would be implemented,” she added.

At the end of the program, Ms. Sotelo and other officers of RAGE-1 who were present like Ms. Wilma Olpindo, Assistant Regional Director of the Commission on Population Region 1 and Dr. Michelle Cababa of the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center talked about their respective agencies’ programs and activities for Women’s Month.

To watch the full episode, please go to this link: https://fb.watch/4s0pWzNqjt/.