Empower Filipino Women

By Leonardo V. Micua

Women empowerment is alive and well in the local government of San Fabian, Mayor Irene Libunao enthusiastically reported on Wednesday. 

Libunao, only on her first term as chief executive of San Fabian town, spoke at the 2012 Gender and Development (GAD) workshop of the News and Information Bureau (NIB) of the Presidential Communications Operations Office at PTA San Fabian Resort on the theme "Empowering Women Through Media".

"I am happy to report to you that women empowerment is alive and well in San Fabian. Not only because the chief executive, who happens to be me, is a woman. More important, it is because women have been entrusted with official positions of power and authority throughout the local government organization," she stressed.

Mrs. Libunao took over from her husband, Mojamito, who served as mayor for an unprecedented three straight terms and now a board member of Pangasinan.

In her speech, she took pride in saying that nine out of 12 department heads in the San Fabian local government are all women.

These include the municipal treasurer, accountant, budget officer, planning and development officer, administrative officer, civil registrar, assessor, interior and local government officer and the social welfare officer.

Only three departments of the local government have male heads. These are the Municipal Health Office, Municipal Agriculture Office and the Municipal Engineering Office.

"I am not trying hard not to be biased but in all the eleven departments, except that of the Municipal Health Unit and the Municipal Engineer, all those who are next in line to the department heads, are all women," she said.

She added that as they already have a male municipal health officer, it would be more apt and proper for her to look for a lady doctor to head the soon-to-be-opened Lying-in Clinic of San Fabian dedicated to would-be mothers of the town.

Libunao said that for the rank and file employees of the town government, she encouraged them to organize the Government Lady Employees Active Movement (GLEAM) which has now 125 active members.

GLEAM has become a leading member of the San Fabian Local Council of Women Organizations composed of 13 organizations, which she had organized as the umbrella organization for all women's associations in the town.

"My initiative in pushing for women empowerment in our municipal government, is actually a follow-through or a spill-over, of my personal advocacy as a private citizen before I became mayor of San Fabian," Libunao confessed.

She said when her husband became mayor of San Fabian more than 10 years ago, she organized the San Fabian chapter of the Pangasinan Council of Women Inc. (PCWI). Starting with 50 members, the council has now 5,000 members in 34 barangay chapters.

PCWI San Fabian has established a beauty parlor, a garments and dress shop and fish processing shop, all of which also serve as training centers for women.

The council now produces boneless bangus and bangus sardines, which was awarded on its first year of production as the best OTOP (One Town One Product) in Pangasinan and in Region 1.

PCWI now sells these products, together with other San Fabian women's products, at the PCWI Pasalubong Center located at the San Fabian Town Garden, which is also a project of PCWI, and which also houses the PCWI Multi-purpose Hall, and the PCWI Bigasan ng Bayan, which is the authorized wholesaler and retailer of NFA Rice in San Fabian.

San Fabian PCWI has a multi-purpose cooperative which has grown to become a multi-purpose cooperative.

"Women empowerment is special to my heart. It springs from my personally experiencing the heartfelt aspirations of the women I have met, especially over the past 10 years after I moved over to San Fabian, to live here after my husband was elected mayor," she said.

She recalled that in her visits to the various barangays, almost all the people she met were wives, mothers and daughters who were in their homes because they were unemployed or have no means of livelihood to help their families, no matter how very much they wanted to help financially.

What better proof is there, of the disparity in the opportunities of men and women, than the overwhelming preponderance of mothers, wives and daughters left behind in their homes, while their husbands, fathers and brothers are working, because of the absence of livelihood opportunities for them, the mayor said.