GABRIELA Women’s Party-list Representatives: Cathy
Estavillo, Sarah Elago, and Dr Jean Lindo together file
the certification of nomination and acceptance.
The Philippine women’s organization GABRIELA is standing candidates in the coming national election. A nominee of GABRIELA said the party-list group is in favour of decriminalizing abortion in the Philippines.
“GABRIELA was founded in April 1984 after 10,000 women marched in Manila, defying a Marcos decree against demonstrations. GABRIELA was named in honor of Gabriela Silang, a Filipina revolutionary, who led a revolt against Spain in 1763 following her husband’s assassination. Amidst a backdrop of widespread social inequality and unrest, GABRIELA aimed to synthesize issues of national liberation, poverty and women’s emancipation. The organization’s founders pushed for “Third World feminism” which focused on comprehensive social transformation, rather than focusing on individual forms of oppression. GABRIELA’s advocacy challenges patriarchy, alongside resisting foreign influence and neocolonialism.”
In 2003, the Gabriela Women’s Party was launched with the help of GABRIELA members and other women’s and people’s organizations. It is separate but allied with the women’s organization. In the 2004 election for the House of Representatives the party-list received 464,586 votes (3.6518% of the nationwide vote) and won a seat for first nominee Liza Maza. In the 2007 election, the party won two seats in the nationwide party-list vote. The Gabriela Women’s Party was the only women’s party to obtain a second term in Congress.
SOURCES: Inquirer.net, a few sentences and photo by John Eric Mendoza. 4 October 2024 ; Wikipedia: Gabriela Women’s Party