The World March of Women – Pilipinas commemorates this year’s International Day of the Elimination of all Forms of Violence against Women even as Filipino women today continuously experience attacks on various fronts: on their bodies, on their livelihood and economic sustenance, on their communities, on their lives.

In a show of resistance against war, red tagging and other acts human rights violations, forced displacement, corporate violence that threaten the economic survival of women, sexual abuse and prostitution, endangerment of health and well-being, around one hundred (100) women from the member organizations of the WMW – Pilipinas gathered and held a program at Timog Circle, Quezon City, on the eve of the International Day of the Elimination of forms of VAW. November 25 marks the beginning in the Philippines of the annual 18-day campaign against VAW.

WMW – Pilipinas called for the release of Sally Ujano who has languished in jail without proper trial in the last three years. “She is still in prison for a crime she did not commit and has suffered too long under an oppressive system that perpetuates red tagging and a suppressive state who fails to respect and protect the rights of its citizens,” said Patricia Gonzales, Ujano’s sister.

The attack on Filipino women’s bodies continues through trafficking and prostitution and is further aggravated by “the lack of mechanisms for survivors’ participation in the formulation of programs for the recovery and reintegration of survivors of trafficking, prostitution, and other forms of violence against women,” stressed Jean Enriquez, national coordinator of the WMW-Pilipinas and Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking of Women in the Asia Pacific (CATW-AP). She also underscored that “as a survivor myself, I can say that we are at the receiving end of decisions that we had no role in creating.” Challenging policymakers at the UN and in the Philippine government to listen to survivors and women-led organizations on the need for long-term interventions, Enriquez called for the immediate passage of the Sexual Exploitation Survivors’ Assistance Act. Survivors of prostitution and Duterte’s extra-judicial killings were part of the action.

Women’s lives are under threat because of economic injustice, militarization, corporate exploitation of workers, farmers, and indigenous peoples. “We are denied the right to live with decent livelihood in farming and the places we live in. Still, many of us continue to resist. However, those that do face violent acts, the worst of which are being committed by state actors and institutions. Many of the victims are women. This should not be happening. What should be prioritized is improving the lives of women and the people in general — not the blatant theft of ancestral, rural, and urban land by large corporations and not the continuing attacks on our human rights,” said SENTRO – Women.

SENTRO – Women added that “we will continue to campaign for peace with justice. We will not stop in seeking the truth and in opposing the ruling establishment’s inclination towards war, militarization, colonization, and the destruction of both humanity and the environment.”

The experience of Filipino women migrant workers are no different and the long-standing issues that impact on them have persisted in the post-pandemic era, abuses resulting from their migration and mobility being of one of these. “The migration journey has exposed Filipino women migrant workers to physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, and forced criminality, with many being coerced into digital crimes through scam hubs,” underscored Ellen Sana, executive director of CMA. Aggravating these challenges are climate change that “also forces many women to migrate, as their livelihoods are disrupted by environmental crises while they also experience abuse within their own families and communities back home.”

“Migration should never be forced but rather a choice, as no woman migrant worker should return in a casket or be trapped in debt bondage. As they cross borders, the realization of their rights must not be diminished. We demand trauma-informed care, social protection, gender-responsive policies, and social justice to ensure the dignity, equality, and rights of women migrant workers are upheld,” Sana stressed

LILAK holds the Marcos Jr government accountable for the continuing “implementation of a corporate-led economic and development agenda leading to corporate land-grabbing of ancestral domains, which constitutes an act of violence that renders indigenous women more vulnerable to food insecurity, poverty, climate crisis, and gender-based violence.”

“Their situation will not change as long as the state prioritizes profit over people, and those in power remain to be the same ones who benefit from this type of economic and development framework. Meanwhile, the indigenous women human rights defenders of their ancestral domains face threats, harassment, social exclusion, while these corporations and the government act with impunity,” said of LILAK.

Partido Manggagawa, through its Secretary General, Judy Ann Miranda, also pledged that their organization “will pursue campaigning for the passage of the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy (PAP) bill. Violance, abuse and statutory rape against girls and young women are undeniably part of the problem of early pregnancies in our country. It is timely that while we do the campaign against VAW, PAP should be a major component.”

In solidarity with women in war-ravaged situations, WMW – Pilipinas called for the accountability of perpetrators of war, led by the Israeli state with support from the United States, to stop the attacks Palestine and Lebanon which resulted in the forced displacement, sexual abuse and loss of lives of women and children. It also called to stop the attacks on women’s rights in all places, especially Afghanistan, Kanaky, Kurdistan, Mali, Syria and Sudan.