Teresa B. Fernandez: Pioneering to End Domestic Violence

By Marivir R. Montebon



"At one time, a mother complained that her husband had broken all her trays of eggs when he was drunk. Another husband had stolen his wife's income from peanut vending. These realities have opened my eyes to the fact that domestic violence has a lot to do with the economic impairment of our women beneficiaries," says Teresa Banaynal-Fernandez, women's rights advocate and one time Cebu-based nominee for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize for 1000 Women.

That moment of truth, from women's lamentations of abuse, led Tessie to make an organized campaign against domestic violence. At first it was a lonely issue, with her husband in fact cautioning her against prying on private lives. She did not listen to him, of course. She listened to her heart.

Now the campaign against domestic violence, through the Bantay Banay, has reached national proportions, in the legislative and executive offices of government.

Tessie and the women who wanted change have come a long way indeed.

Her nomination to the Nobel (she was the only one for Cebu) was definitely an additional feather on her cap, having gone a long way since her teenage years in the relentless, passionate task of empowering women and the marginalized sectors of southern Philippines. Although the nomination did not make it last year, for Tessie believes it was mileage enough for women’s rights advocates in the whole world to make their works known and recognized. The Philippines fielded 28 women’s rights champions in the entire nomination.

Tessie (born 1953) is a passionate trailblazer in "alternative politics" for its ubiquitous but voiceless urban poor residents. She is a tireless advocate of women's rights that has helped change the lives of many women and influenced government institutions, non-government organizations, and universities to take on such "unpopular" issues as domestic
violence, gender sensitivity, good governance, environmental protection and human rights.

The Lihok Filipina Foundation, the institution that she helped found and is currently executive director, won as the exemplary institution in the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Triennial Awards in 2006.

When appointed to head Cebu City’s urban poor office in the early 1990s, she conducted a survey on domestic violence and found that six out of 10 women in the community were being battered. This prompted her to form the Bantay Banay program in 1992, a community-based and multi-stakeholder approach to end domestic violence. Police enforcers, social workers, councilors, lawyers, and village chiefs were trained in gender sensitivity and human rights to help them respond to domestic problems.

"It was time to realize that domestic violence and gender sensitivity are public concerns because it is commonly felt by women," asserts Tessie. Barangay (village) volunteers were trained and a referral system was opened where non-government organizations, government agencies and professionals are tapped to help. Bantay Banay has been replicated in 70 cities and towns all over the country, effectively making the issue of domestic violence not only a public issue but also one of governance.

Tessie continues to pursue her other passions, the environment, particularly solid waste management, water conservation, and watershed protection.

PEACE IS POLITICAL

Tessie’s political awakening began in her teenage years in college at Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City where she took sociology and history. Student unrest was sweeping from Manila, the country's capital to Mindanao, as the young minds in universities grew increasingly critical and vocal about the way Marcos ran the country.

In 1971, on her third year in college, Tessie was among the leaders of a big protest action that demanded for quality services from the school. "We wanted peace in our land, but that which is based on justice. We were openly advocating for reforms," she recalls.

When martial law was declared in 1972, she went back to her hometown in Wao, Lanao where she taught in a parish school. Teaching in her hometown provided a respite from the perils of the Marcos regime, when student leaders were blacklisted by the military as communists and arrested.

After graduating from college in 1972, she went back to her hometown for summer vacation where she was asked by the parish priest to teach in the coming school year. When martial law was declared in September that year, she was informed that her name was in the blacklist. She went into hiding for a month and later surfaced in a military camp in Cagayan de Oro with a character bond from the Archbishop. Tessie then joined the Social Action Office where she took charge of the relief and rehabilitation program for refugees, the youth program, and the Archdiocesan Bulletin.

As a community organizer, she helped the communities in Kawasaki Corporation and the tribal community of the Higaonons in Misamis Oriental. She became training director for Mindanao of the Philippine Ecumenical Community for Community Organizing and supervised the training of organizers in Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and Occidental, Surigao, and Lanao del Norte.

Her marriage to Bimbo Fernandez, currently city administrator of Cebu City, in 1980 did not deter Tessie from her advocacy work.

In 1981, when she first became a mother, she settled in Cagayan de Oro and continued her work with the squatters in the city. Also at the time, she was involved in alternative law (making the law accessible and useful to people) and Pilipina, a women’s NGO that pioneered the advocacy for gender as a development issue.

In 1982, with a second child coming, Tessie joined her husband in Cebu and worked with him in advocating for low-income housing and experimenting on alternative housing materials using their own house as the example. She also began organizing
the women in the community where they lived, initially around health care issues, land acquisition, and later, income generation.

The fall of President Marcos through the People Power uprising in 1986 opened new political frontiers. For Tessie, it was an opportunity to articulate the issues of the people who had long been silenced by martial law.

During the 1988 local elections, she initiated an electoral forum on urban poor issues in Cebu City that opened the discussion of commonly felt problems in the community by candidates and the urban poor organizations. The forum outlined seven major concerns for the urban poor, summed up under security of tenure and delivery of basic services.

"It was a first attempt at democracy, a kind of alternative politics where the people defined and articulated what they wanted and expected of the political leaders," Tessie says. The forum, led by the political party Bandila, the Urban Poor People's Council, and the Cebuano Development Forum which Tessie herself founded in 1985 and where Lihok Filipina is a
member, later endorsed mayoralty and vice mayoralty candidates whose platforms jived with their concerns.

When these candidates won, they created an urban poor office that the mayor asked Tessie to head. Although she was hesitant to head a government office, Tessie was forced to take on the new responsibility on the insistent prodding of NGOs and urban poor organizations.

The Office for the Urban Poor takes charge of urban concerns such as land acquisition, relocations, basic services, and others. "It was an uneasy undertaking for me. I was used to working in a non-government organization, which was very critical of government. And suddenly, there I was, asked to head a government office. It was very uncomfortable. But I
managed to do what I had to do, and reminded myself that once I become an apologist for the government, it is time to get out," she quips.

Tessie initiated advocacy of the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) for land acquisition of the urban poor authored by her husband, who was then presidential commissioner for the urban poor. The CMP later became a program of the national government, as a response to the land tenure needs of the urban poor.

PEACE STARTS AT HOME

That domestic violence is a social issue became an uneasy realization for Tessie who, alongside her work at the urban poor office, continued to manage the Lihok Pilipina Foundation which had programs for micro credit, production and marketing
assistance, a welfare program for street children, water and sanitation, and women's education.

The foundation’s staff was surprised and alarmed at the low repayment by women in Lihok's micro credit program. Tessie realized that domestic violence probably had something to do with the problem.

"At one time, a mother complained that her husband had broken all her trays of eggs when he was drunk. Another husband had stolen his wife's income from peanut vending. These realities have opened my eyes to the fact that domestic violence has a lot to do with the economic impairment of our women beneficiaries," Tessie says.

"When I touched on domestic violence as an issue, my husband was at first reactive. He asked, ‘Why do you have to touch on something so private to couples?’" Tessie says.

But she was unstoppable and Tessie brought the long misunderstood issue of domestic violence into the consciousness of Lihok Pilipina.

Her office conducted a survey on domestic violence and found out that six out of 10 women in the community were being battered. This led to the formation of Bantay Banay in 1992, a community-based and multi-stakeholder approach to end domestic violence.

Police enforcers, social workers, councilors, lawyers, and village chiefs were trained in gender sensitivity and human rights in order help them respond to domestic problems.

"It was time to realize that domestic violence and gender sensitivity are public concerns because they are commonly felt by women," asserts Tessie.

Since many cases were referred to city hall, the mayor lent financial support to the training of barangay (village) volunteers and opened up a referral system where non-government organizations, government agencies, and professionals are tapped to help. Bantay Banay has been replicated in 70 cities and towns all over the country, effectively making the issue of domestic violence not only a public issue but also one of governance.

Cebu City is among the cities where the gender issue is mainstreamed in its planning and budget processes. Recently, it was one of the three awardees as a Women Friendly City in the Asia Pacific given by UN Habitat and UNIFEM.

The city was also awarded by the Galing Pook Foundation as an outstanding city in the realm of Gender Responsive Governance. Other than politics and women empowerment, Tessie is a staunch advocate of environmental protection. Her urban poor groups
are pioneering in a solid waste management program that segregates recyclables from degradable wastes right in the home.

This effort has been replicated by 11 barangays in the city.

She was among those who started the Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water which advocates for water and watershed conservation through educational tours, reforestation activities, and sensitive land use plans.

PEACE IS PERSONAL



At the end of the day, among her many roles, Tessie is ultimately the mother of eight children, a role she gladly performs amid the huge challenges of her advocacy work. "Despite my busy schedule, I always have time for my children. I make it a point to attend parents-teachers meetings in school. And I make sure I buy them the stuff they need for school, that I always remember to bring them at the end of day," she beams.

While the children were growing, she would bring her kids to her office. "My bag was always stuffed with crayons, candies, and toys for them so that I could continue with my work while they drew or played in a corner."

Now all the children have grown, and she has much more time for her work. It seemed to go by so quickly, Tessie observes, but raising eight children was not at all easy.

"I had to budget our money very well. I did not want to incur debts, so I made sure we prioritized school and food first.
Until now, our house is a work-in-progress. And since they came one year after the other, my kids did not mind wearing hand-me-down clothes. We try to limit spending and only spent what we earn. This is one of the surest ways to have peace of mind. This is one value I taught my children," she says.

Where does a woman like Tessie get her strength to work as mother and advocate for social change? "After I have done my utmost, I pray that God will take care of the rest. I guess, faith and gut feel just keep me going," she says, smiling.

(This article first came out from the WOMEN'S FEATURE SERVICE) #

The Sinulog Tradition

By Marivir R. Montebon
New York
I can hear the frenzied beating of the drums of the Sinulog dance. And I can see the animated foot dances of devotees and plain merry makers of one of the the biggest religious festival of my country which happens to take place in Cebu.

Here I go again, waxing sentimental.

Every third Sunday of January, the feast of the Child Jesus, whom we call Sto. Nino de Cebu, is celebrated by Cebuanos in hometown Cebu and by Filipino immigrant groups in many parts of the world.

Dubbed as the Sinulog, the festival is named after a dance prayer, "sinulog" which is being offered by devotees to the Child Jesus, as a form of thanksgiving and petition seeking. On the social realm, it is hugely religious and yes, hugely commercial. Cebu attracts so many tourists, including natives who are living and working abroad, to come home in time for this festivity.

As a matter of profession, I have covered the Sinulog celebrations since my heydays at The Freeman Newspaper, the oldest running community paper in the Philippines. Although it is the same old process of the fluvial parade, Catholic procession, and mardi gras for an entire weekend, each year is distinctively beautiful, hence, an event to look forward to.

Now on my 5th year here in the US, I long to be able to cover these events again. And dance to the Sinulog beat.

The Sinulog tradition in Cebu as well as the heavily celebrated home town fiestas in the Philippines is a heritage from the Spain when it imposed Catholicism for more than 300 years.

I would say it would not have been embraced fully by the natives if not for their inherent flamboyant and carefree nature. Being animistic and paganistic, the practice of the Catholic faith had seeped and blended right into the psyche of the natives. Whether the Catholic friars wanted it or not, the flourishing of a Catholic tradition rests on a subconscious psyche of animism.

Such is uniquely Filipino.

This explains further why we are naturally faithful and merry, despite the enormous social ills. As a people, our mindset is not anchored merely on the material. Our common strength is in the faith of an unseen power of a God. Or gods.

Tons of articles written by academicians, church doctors, and social behaviorists, describe the Filipinos as backward, pagan, blind, gullible. There is some grain of truth in that.

But what has this faith created? It has created resilience and perseverance, individually and collectively. It is a kind of subconscious strength of a people that must be harnessed, in an educational and ethical manner, for the personal and common good. That is how I see, otherwise we are lost.

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Homesick at Christmas and New Year

Sylvia Hubilla
Round Rock, Texas
The gaggle of scruffy, mostly barefoot kids' voices soar above the din of jeepney horns a-honking, “Kasadya ning takna-a...” (This is such a merry time...)and “We wish you a Merry Christmas...” to the accompaniment of soda pop bottle caps strung through a wire hoop like a tambourine. At the end of the song, each one gets a shiny coin, or the group gets a peso bill if there is a designated cashier. Then they do the finale, “Thank you, thank you,” and depending on how generous, or un-generous you were, could end this way, “ang babarat ninyo, thank you!” (You are all cheapskates.)

I miss the carolers who walk from house to house – whether the likes of the above, or the more formal groups who come into your home on their appointed time printed on the envelope they sent you days before, and fill your home with songs.

I miss this gift of songs!

I encouraged my three little girls to carol around our neighborhood with their neighbor friends. We would make a list of the names we think would welcome them. I, or one of our helpers, would of course, keep a close watch over them. Some nights, they would come home excited! Some nights, they came home dejected. So I decided, as a rule, that ours would always be the last stop for the group. And of course, we made it worth their while!

The celebration is ushered in by the “ber” months, starting from September to December, and even long into January, for “Pit Senyor!” the big celebration of Sinulog, the Feast of the Infant Jesus. Christmas carols take over the airwaves, blaring from jeepneys, and inside malls and stores.

Christmas officially starts on December 16, and the Simbang Gabi, the dawn masses for nine days before Christmas. The highlight of this early morning ritual for me, was, I'm sorry to admit, not so much for the spiritual, as much as for the gastronomic experience that follows. Outside the Church would be wafting in the air, the enticing, irresistable aroma of “sikwate” (thick, hot cocoa) and “puto bumbong,” purple, “tapul” sticky rice, steamed in bamboo tubes, served with butter or margarine on top, and grated coconut and muscovado sugar on the side.

Or these and more, are usually waiting for you too when you get home. Also add to the mix, the Cebuano puto – sticky rice steamed with ginger, coconut cream, a pinch of salt and sugar, wrapped in banana leaf, usually shaped in a triangle. I would pour my sikwate all over the puto – aah, my tastebuds ascend to gastronomical heaven!

New Year's Day, is another story in itself. The preparation leading to it is a big production. Central to it is the table for the “Media Noche,” as we call the midnight meal the family shares as we welcome the New Year. The center piece would be, of course, the thirteen, round fruits. You would like to start getting this together earlier, because the closer you get to the eve, the rarer, and more expensive they become. And you don't want to have just ten, or eleven, or twelve – it has to be thirteen! And only round fruits! Next, you have to have sweet, sticky food, preferably round.
Then the thirteen grapes for each member of the family, to be consumed by each one all at once at the stroke of midnight! Quite a feat, huh? Oh, and no chicken dish must be served. Pork is fine.

Now the attire is another thing – you must wear polka dots, at least somewhere on your body, visible or not. At midnight, your pockets must have coins to jingle, wallets and purses must have bills in them, windows, doors, drawers, must all be open when midnight comes, to let good luck and prosperity in. And to drive away the evil and negative spirits, we make a lot of noise with anything – horns, pots and pans, honk car horns, and of course – fireworks!

The firecrackers and fireworks are something else! Bordering on the dangerous, sometimes fatal. Hospital emergency rooms go into overdrive. This can go on and on into the wee hours of the morning. I remember the sight, and sound, and the smell of it! When everything died down, the smoke and smell of gunpowder made the neighborhood feel like a war zone. I remember we had to put earplugs on my baby grandson who was home for a visit – poor baby.

Maybe “homesick” is not the right word for what I feel when this season comes around. Because I am, truly “Home” now – with my children and grandchildren.

So when we gather on New Year's Eve for our Media Noche, we will have our thirteen fruits, our thirteen grapes, wearing our polkadots, jingling coins in our pockets, and marrying our traditions with the west, we will have ham, and “biko” or “sapin-sapin” and toast the New Year in with red wine while we do the countdown, waiting for the ball to drop in New York City, via internet.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! And may yours be filled with bountiful joy and blessings!