BABAYE: Talk show on women

Cebu City (WFS) -- What started out with siomai is now almost a four-year-old television talk show about women. Babaye (or woman in the Visayan dialect), was conceptualized and took on the format of Panahon sa Kababayen-an, a radio program initiated by Marivir Montebon under the Women's Feature Service, an international news agency reporting on women's issues. The show thus became its audio-visual counterpart, and touched on women's inspiring stories of their careers, families, advocacies, and community work.

Clearly, the intent of the Babaye is to promote the good things that women are doing, whether as public servant, corporate leader, community leader, entrepreneur, mother, women's rights advocate.

It is co-hosted by the cool tandem of Montebon and Stella Monteno who is also the show's director. "It is work with passion," says Monteno. "And we are really just having fun," adds Montebon.

WFS Ref: CV613
872 words with photos

A DAUGHTER IN THE HOUSE
By Samantha Tancinco

Tacloban City (WFS) -- "…the typical Filipino attitude towards daughters. Pambayad utang, you know that saying. That's what men say about daughters. They're for paying off old debts."

A daughter is capital. So a philanderer's punishment is to have many daughters to guard because some guy like him might beguile his daughters the way he did other women..

On the other hand, the Filipino daughter's sense of obligation to her family is so strong, she hardly has a sense of her own life apart from that imperative. Most girls obey their parents to work in the city or even abroad and dutifully send their earnings to pay off debts. In every household where someone's daughter had come to work for her room and board and a little cash, this story occurs repeatedly with infinite variations

WFS Ref: EV612
896 words

LOVE TILL IT HURTS
By Samantha Tancinco

Tacloban City (WFS) It is easy to find blame in men for the sufferings of women. Crucify the philandering husband. "There are new women in his life", she confided. In fairness, there are a lot of good men in God's earth too, equal to the virtues of the women they live with.

Among the inalienable rights of women is freedom from all kinds of violence-physical, sexual, emotional, mental, economic. The Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) guarantees the rights of women against danger, harassment, indignity. But something much change in the minds of women too, for CEDAW guarantees to stick. If for some women, love must hurt, think again. CEDAW reminds all women, it's probably VAW - violence against women.

WFS Ref: EV601
1,155 words

Women asked to vote wisely as suffrage did not come easy for women in the Philippines
By Ma. Diosa Labiste

Iloilo City (WFS)- A research on the history of women in Iloilo, particularly on the Asociacion Feminista Ilongga (AFI) or Association of Ilongga Feminists, showed that it took 30 years for Filipino women to win the right to vote, but many women took their right to suffrage for granted. However, women's groups are asking women to run for elective positions and to vote wisely on the May 14 Philippine elections.

"Women's groups these days said that there is no such thing as a women's vote but maybe they haven't realized their power as voters and as women. Half of some 45 million voters are women," said Asong.

WFS Ref: WV604
1,013 words

Life is never the same again for family of missing activist
By Ma. Diosa Labiste

Iloilo City (WFS) - Life has been never been the same again for the family of a missing activist as they continue to search for her and make sense of what befell her. Her family has blamed the military for abducting other activists who disappeared since 2001 because they were members of left-leaning groups tagged by the military to be fronts of armed insurgents.

WFS Ref: WV605
835 words

Hispanic art finds its way to Philippine town
By Ma. Diosa Labiste

Iloilo City (WFS) - An artist introduced the ancient Hispanic art of "repujado" to local women, hoping to inspire them to create works of art and increase their incomes.

WFS Ref: WV603
875 words

Philippines: The 2006 outstanding rural woman
By Ma. Diosa Labiste

ILOILO CITY (WFS)-A civic leader turned politician in central Philippine province of Aklan led 120 women to build backyard gardens producing pesticide-free vegetables and went on to win honors as the 2006 Outstanding Rural Woman.

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Women endure hardships brought by oil spill
By Ma. Diosa Labiste

ILOILO CITY (WFS)-The oil spill off the sea of Guimaras province has affected women because it destroyed the mudflats that are sources of shellfish, disrupted their way of life and caused them and their families to abandon their homes because of the toxic fumes emitted by the oil slick.

WFS Ref: WV572
1, 087 words

Philippines: Women pleased over the promises of gender code
By Ma. Diosa Labiste

ILOILO CITY (WFS) Women have hailed the passage of Iloilo City Gender and Development Code last May that they say is a "compilation of the promises" of the city government. They urged the women to claim the promises and monitor its implementation.

WFS Ref:WV583
928 words

Philippines: A dilemma about names
By Hazel B. Caballero

Tacloban City (WFS) -Under RA 9255, illegitimate children are now able to carry their father's surname. As this law promotes the child's right to a name, it however neglects to take into consideration the situation of the mother's name. This story tells a tale of the complication that this law may cause in some situations, not only for the mother, but for the children as well. It also puts into light what the law has done to make sure that single parents are given well-deserved benefits from the government through The Solo Parents' Act of 2000.

WFS Ref:EV576
1,789 Words