THE WOMEN WHO HELPED SHAPE PHILIPPINE FEMINISM

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Teresita “Ging” Quintos Deles

Teresita “Ging” Deles helped mother women’s organizations such as FILIPINA, Women’s Action Network for Development (WAND) and Legislative Advocates for Women (LAW) working on the first laws protecting women. “Changing the status of women. Transforming how women are, how gender roles are, requires the use of power differently… It could also mean opposing and doing strategies against people who hold power,” says Deles. “Sometimes, it may get really dark. One has to be ready for it.”

Deles began structured work as a feminist-activist in 1980s. Back then they were fighting to overcome barriers for women’s equal participation for the country. “It was transforming burdens and responsibilities both inside and outside the house [and addressing] multiple burdens of women … It was the insight that poor women suffered not just being poor but as women. In the natural order of things, the third world women suffered still another burden.” Deles was also a peace advocate, she co-founded the Coalition for Peace, the first non-government that aimed to end the ongoing conflicts in the Philippines. She then moved to grassroots communities to help them develop their own piece initiatives.

“Organizing means making time for meetings. Having long conversations that sometimes do not seem to get anywhere but are important to finally be leveling off and understanding. As the famous dictum of women’s movement goes, ‘the personal is political.’”

— Teresita Quintos Deles

Known as a convener among women’s organizations, Deles has provided different platforms for women to come together and talk across their different devices. She insists that organizing is important. “I get the sense that younger people may be a bit wary about being too organized, being co-opted into structures,” she says. “They will have to find out a way of organizing that works with them. I cannot believe that one can do power strategy that does not organize people. Organizing means making time for meetings. Having long conversations that sometimes do not seem to get anywhere but are important to finally be leveling off and understanding. As the famous dictum of women’s movement goes, ‘the personal is political.’”

“As we can see, in the Philippines now, after so much gains and advancement, misogyny can [still] rear its ugly head. What we thought we had already gained and fought for are now again under threat,” Deles warns. She was the first female Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPPAP) and Lead Convener of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAP-C). She has been doing development work for grassroots community and non-government work before working for the OPPAP and NAP-C.