Women from various sectors join a demonstration in the Philippine capital Manila on March 8, 2023, International Women’s Day. (Photo by Joe Torres)
By Jose Torres Jr.
Mar 9 2023
Human rights and women’s groups in the Philippines on Wednesday, March 8, vowed to “stand in solidarity with all women victims of repression” as they marked International Women’s Day.
“There are many … women who have been victimized as they suffered economic and social dislocation due to aerial bombings, artillery attacks, militarization and the demolition of their communities,” read a statement from the group Karapatan.
“There are likewise those who slowly suffer and die, not from bombs or bullets, but from the insidious violence wrought by poverty in their daily lives,” added the group.
Hundreds of women, women workers, and advocates of women’s rights marched in the streets of the capital Manila to demand higher wages, decent jobs, and protection of their rights on Wednesday.
“The unities formed by women workers and the rest of the toiling Filipinos for wage hike belie government’s claim that the same would be ‘harmful to the economy,’” said Clarice Palce, secretary general of the women’s group Gabriela.
This year’s International Women’s Day came at the heels of a transport strike against the proposed phaseout of public utility jeeps in the country. Jeepney drivers and operators joined the protests.
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