The Gabriela Women's Party (General Assembly Binding Women for Integrity, Reform, Equality, Leadership and Action) or simply GABRIELA, is a progressive
Filipino political party that advocates for women's issues and represents Filipino women in the
House of Representatives.
The party is separate, although allied, with GABRIELA National Alliance of Filipino Women. GABRIELA, the alliance, is a nationwide network of
grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
organizations, institutions, and programs that address social issues such as
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
,
poverty,
globalization,
militarism
Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...
,
violence
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...
,
rape culture
Rape culture is a setting, studied by several sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut ...
,
health
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
,
sex trafficking
Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the c ...
,
censorship and other issues affecting women. The alliance has regional chapters in
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...
,
Cordillera Administrative Region, and
Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...
; sub-regional chapters in
Negros,
Panay
Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and has a total population of 4,542,926 as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City ...
and
Samar
Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...
, and provincial chapters in
Bicol and
Cebu
Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 ...
. GABRIELA's membership includes Filipino women from marginalized sectors of society and works towards their education and empowerment. The organization also engages in counseling services, medical missions, free clinics, and trainings on women’s health and women’s rights.
History
GABRIELA, the alliance, was founded in April 1984 after 10,000 women marched in
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...
, defying a
Marcos Marcos may refer to:
People with the given name ''Marcos''
*Marcos (given name)
Sports
;Surnamed
* Dayton Marcos, Negro league baseball team from Dayton, Ohio (early twentieth-century)
* Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer
* Nélson Marcos, Portug ...
decree against demonstrations.
GABRIELA was named in honor of
Gabriela Silang, a Filipina revolutionary, who led a revolt against
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
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
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
, alongside resisting foreign influence and
neocolonialism
Neocolonialism is the continuation or reimposition of imperialist rule by a state (usually, a former colonial power) over another nominally independent state (usually, a former colony). Neocolonialism takes the form of economic imperialism, ...
.
Electoral performance
In 2003, the Gabriela Women's Party was launched with the help of GABRIELA members and other women's and people's organizations.
In the
2004 election for the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ca ...
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
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
, 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.
Representatives to Congress
*
13th Congress (2004–2007) -
Liza Maza
*
14th Congress (2007–2010) -
Luzviminda Ilagan, Liza Maza
*
15th Congress (2010–2013) - Luzviminda Ilagan,
Emerenciana de Jesus
*
16th Congress (2013–2016) - Luzviminda Ilagan, Emerenciana de Jesus
*
17th Congress (2016–2019) - Emerenciana de Jesus, Arlene Brosas
*
18th Congress (2019–2022) -
Arlene Brosas
*
19th Congress (2022–present) - Arlene Brosas
Programs and positions
One Billion Rising (OBR) Task Force Philippines
One Billion Rising (OBR) is a global campaign founded to end rape and sexual violence against women. Since 2013, GABRIELA have led the One Billion Rising Task Force in the Philippines and abroad where its chapters are situated.
The Philippine task force members include:
* Gabriela
* Gabriela Women's Party
* Gabriela Youth
*
Kilusang Mayo Uno
Kilusang Mayo Uno, or May First Labor Movement (KMU) is an independent labor center in the Philippines promoting militant unionism. It follows in the fighting tradition of the country's first trade union, the Lithographers' and Printers' Unio ...
*
Alliance of Concerned Teachers
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT-Teachers) is a progressive and militant national democratic mass organization of teachers, academics, and other education workers in the Philippines, established on June 26, 1982. It is the largest non-tr ...
* Ecumenical Women's Forum
* Salinlahi Alliance for Children's Concerns
* Association for the Rights of Children in Southeast Asia
* Amihan Federation of Peasant Women
* Kadamay
* Innabuyog Gabriela
*
Kabataan Partylist
Kabataan, also known as the Kabataan Partylist (KPL, ) and formerly known as Ang Nagkakaisang Kabataan Para sa Sambayanan (ANAK ng BAYAN, ), is a partylist in the Philippines affiliated with the leftist political coalition Makabayan. It is curre ...
* Migrante
Human trafficking
In the Philippines, GABRIELA is actively involved in awareness campaigns to prevent the trafficking of women and girls from the Philippines. Its strategies consist of seminars and information dissemination to NGOs and government agencies and awareness campaigns at the community level. In 1999, GABRIELA launched the Purple Rose Campaign campaign against the sex trafficking of Filipino women and children. The campaign achieved a milestone with the passage of the
Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003
The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, officially designated as Republic Act No. 9208, is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 2444 and House Bill No. 4432. It was enacted and passed by Congress of the Philippines' Senate of the Philippines and ...
with GABRIELA representative Liza Maza as the bill's co-sponsor. GABRIELA is also actively involved in the Vow to
Fight Against Violence on Women and the Free Our Sisters/Free Ourselves campaign.
International chapters
GABRIELA has chapters in the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.
See also
*
Violeta Marasigan
References
External links
GABRIELA Alliance official websiteGabriela Women's Party official websiteGABRIELA USA
{{DEFAULTSORT:GABRIELA
1984 establishments in the Philippines
Anti-pornography feminism
Anti-pornography movements
Democratic socialist parties in Asia
Feminist organizations in the Philippines
Feminist parties in Asia
Human trafficking in the Philippines
International League of Peoples' Struggle
Left-wing parties in the Philippines
Left-wing politics in the Philippines
National Democracy Movement (Philippines)
Organizations established in 1984
Political parties established in 2003
Organizations that combat human trafficking
Party-lists represented in the House of Representatives of the Philippines
Socialist feminist organizations
Socialist parties in the Philippines