[MISS]SOGYNISTIC [PRESSED]IDENT

BY XENA HYACINTH G. ESTIÑOSO BSMM‘21

With the nearing 2022 presidential election, political parties of opposition alike are betting on their candidate to be the next president of the Philippines. Expressing support to the presidential daughter Sara to take heed of her supporters’ plea, campaign banners have been seen over public landmarks nationwide. However, President Rodrigo Duterte was quick to dismiss the speculation that her daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Dutere-Carpio is running for the 2022 Presidential Election.

Since sitting in the presidential chair in 2016, Duterte cultivated an image of a sexist and misogynistic president who proudly airs “harmless” jokes degrading and objectifying women. His remark on the presidency not being a job for women may no longer be a surprise yet should still raise an alarm of the misogyny and the culture of impunity that revolves around it. In 2018, in his speech , Duterte ordered 200 former communist soldiers to shoot female guerillas on their vaginas. He went up saying that women without their vaginas are useless. In May of the same year, he said that the next Ombudsman should not be a politician and especially not a woman. The president has also publicly threatened and objectified his female critics such as Maria Ressa, Leila De Lima and VP Leni Robredo. It is appalling how these misogynistic acts are always regarded to be a form of the president’s freedom of expression or just a “harmless joke.” Misogyny is violence and was never a basic human right. Duterte, with his claim in the emotional setup of men and women for a presidential role, has yet made another sexist remark that the presidency is not a job for women. This goes far beyond the words of a father who discourages his daughter to run for presidency but also represents the prejudice against women and their abilities to lead. This tolerates the system that oppresses and excludes women in society under the pretense that women are weak and men are better. To counter, according to a 2016 study on “Gender Differences in Emotional Response: Inconsistency between Experience and Expressivity”, no consensus has been reached regarding gender differences and emotional expressivity. Several studies also suggested that there are no gender differences in subjective evaluations of emotions. Gender differences in emotional responses remain unclear. The President’s claim was purely based on a sick patriarchal notion that men are better because men think women are emotional.

It is not the lack of capability nor “emotional setup” that hold women back from leading but the scarcity of opportunities for them to develop their full potential in a patriarchal society.

Filipino women have fought for their place in society, and have time and time again proved that they are strong and competent. Women played a vital role in Philippine History. They were more than maidens who waited for their soldier lovers. Women were fighters. In 1905, Concepción Felix, established the Feminist Association of the Philippines and together with two other women, gathered 18, 000 signatures and filed a petition for suffrage to the lawmakers of the Philippines. Consequently, Encarnacion Alzona, the first Filipino woman to earn a doctoral degree, fought for better conditions for women in society. Her works, along with other suffragettes’ efforts, have given Filipino women their right to suffrage. The late senator, Miriam Defensor Santiago, was the first Filipino and Asian judge of the International Criminal Court. As Senator, Santiago has filed 1, 007 bills and resolutions, the most number of bills and resolutions among her colleagues.

Women are as good leaders as men. This is proven true by women leaders of our time. Jacinda Ardern, a woman and New Zealand’s Prime Minister made history with her world-leading COVID-19 response that was quick and decisive- a far fetched reality for Filipinos who suffer because of the government’s passive COVID-19 response. Taiwan, an island of 23 million people led by woman President Tsai-Ing Wen, to this writing has only lost 10 lives to the virus.

Hypocritical as though it may seem, at the heels of his controversial sexist remark, Duterte appealed to the public to support advocacies that “seek to fight for and acknowledge the inalienable rights of women as equal partners to men”. Far worse than a misogynist’s audacity to talk about women empowerment, is the culture of impunity developed around this gender oppressive system. Misogyny and sexism, of any form, is violence, never been right, and never should be tolerated by the Filipino people in any circumstances and whoever the leader of the motherland may be.