Women, crisis, diskarte

DISKARTE is often associated with what teenage boys resort to when caught in a fix or while plotting to impress a girl. These days, though, it is also being used to describe what wives and mothers are forced to do to keep the family afloat in times of crises.

In general it denotes resourcefulness, or more accurately, craftiness, in the face of a challenge. That challenge is usually assumed to be temporary, but for impoverished Filipino women, crises have become an integral part of their lives – and diskarte practically a way of life.

Indeed, one is expected to get through a crisis through diskarte, because the popular notion is that a crisis is usually temporary, and that better days are expected to come soon enough. But to many poor women, a crisis could well become a chronic situation.

Mary Jane Vargas of the group MAKALAYA was one of the women from various sectors who shared their experiences in coping with the multiple crises that affect poor women the most.

This is among the findings of a study conducted by the women’s coalition Welga ng Kababaihan from 2009 to 2010. The research results were presented last Mar. 24 at a forum in Quezon City that doubled as the launch of the study report called “State of the Filipino Women amid Multiple Crises.”

The research employed 18 focus group discussions (FGDs) among women from five sectors: women in the informal sector or home-based workers; rural women; survivors of trafficking and prostituted women; women overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and migrants; and women working in export processing zones. All were found to have been grappling with the seemingly never-ending and simultaneous waves of crises brought about by economic and political upheavals, as well as natural disasters for the past several years.

The study noted that women are often left with the burden of finding creative ways for the family to survive. One such way is to scrimp on food, which has led to a new set of vocabulary that tries to put a positive – and sometimes humorous – spin on grim reality.

Mary de los Santos, a home-based worker from the group PATAMABA says that these days manok or chicken refers to a single egg that a whole family would be sharing. “Corned beef” could actually be bagoong or shrimp paste. For those who are even harder up, there is “big-sin” or bigas at asin (rice and salt).

Crises also push many women to engage in extreme ways of earning income so that the family could eat. Becoming drug mules can be one. For others, prostitution suddenly begins to look like the only recourse left for them to help their families.

At the forum, Liza Gonzales, a survivor of prostitution, commented, “Walang babae na gustong pumasok sa prostitusyon, pero kapag nawalan siya ng trabaho, nawalan siya ng lupa, o kaya ay nag-abroad siya at pagbalik niya ay wala siyang maipakain sa mga anak niya, papasok siya sa prostitusyon (No woman would want to enter prostitution, but if a woman loses her job, loses her land, or returns home from working abroad and finds herself unable to feed her children, she will go into prostitution).”

Unfortunately, no relief may be forthcoming anytime soon. Unemployment, and consequently, poverty, is expected to rise even more as thousands of OFWs and migrants return to the country in the wake of political tensions in the Middle East and natural disasters in Japan.

Sec. Joel Rocamora of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) defends the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. He is flanked by women leaders Daryl Leyesa of Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK) and Lorenza Umali of the Philippine Commission on Women.

Part of the government’s response to all these is the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program. National Anti-Poverty Commission Chairman Joel Rocamora, who was at the forum, said that the program, would help raise the status of families at the bottom income level. He also emphasized that women are at the center of the government’s CCT or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

Under the program, each eligible poor family can receive a maximum of P1,400 per month, provided they comply with certain conditionalities in relation to health and education. The cash subsidies are usually given to the mother, who is considered the most responsible member of the household.

But the implementation of the program is plagued with irregularities, according to the women who attended the launch. There are cases, they said, of more affluent people in their municipalities receiving cash subsidies even as a number of poor families had been excluded from the program. Cash subsidies are also usually delayed, they said.

Rocamora said, though, that that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the agency tasked to implement the program, is already busy correcting errors in targeting. He also assured the audience that the program is free of corruption. He said that the administration’s anti-poverty program is largely misunderstood, adding in half-jest, “In all the forums that I have attended, I had to defend the 4Ps 90 percent of the time.”

But some women at the forum were left unconvinced. One woman from an urban poor community likened the 4Ps to giving a piece of candy to a hungry wailing child. It would have been better, she said, if the government would consult people at the grassroots regarding the program as they would be able to contribute more effective strategies for the CCT. Another participant remarked that the CCT would not be enough to address the huge inequality in society.

Indeed, participants agreed that a structural approach is needed in order to eradicate poverty. The findings of the study itself stressed the need for women to work together and get organized so that they can have a stronger voice in asking the government for services and programs that are due them.

Mercy Fabros of the group Sarilaya meantime said that women need to be vigilant not only about what is happening in the country, but also about trade negotiations happening at the global level. These, Fabros said, would surely have an impact on the women sector. – PCIJ, April 2011