Cristina Palabay

Cristina Palabay is a committed activist and feminist. Over the years, she has consistently stood in defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms. She has fearlessly raised issues of state accountability for human rights violations and their impact, particularly on women that have been committed by different administrations of the government of the Philippines. In her current capacity as Secretary General of Karapatan, she has been at the forefront of raising concerns against the extrajudicial killings committed by the Duterte administration not only in relation to its “war on drugs,” but also in the context of its insidious persecution of women and other human rights defenders in the country.  

APWLD interviewed Cristina in December 2020 and below is her story.

Engaging in feminist politics and activism

I co-founded the Gabriela Women’s Party in 2000 and was elected as the party’s secretary general in 2003. It is a women’s political party, one of the few, if not the only one, with representation in parliament. 

I was first contacted by APWLD at a colloquium in Kuala Lumpur on women’s political participation in the Asia Pacific region. Initiated by APWLD, the colloquium was among the activities of APWLD’s Task Force on women’s political participation (TF-WPPP) which made efforts to look into and gain insights on women’s political participation in the public domain.

In the colloquium, I shared the experience of having a women’s political party in the Philippines. From the youth movement, we were part of a generation of school- and community-based organising efforts that culminated in several campaigns promoting the right to education for youth. We eventually participated in the ousting of former President Joseph Estrada in the Philippines. It was my baptism of fire in the youth and women’s movement in the country.

In the seven years I spent with the Gabriela Women’s Party, I learned both the work within parliament and how the party contributed to the women’s and people’s movement outside the halls of parliament.

I thought that what I needed was to address numerous human rights issues. But parliament in the Philippines is traditional politics, quite limiting. I needed more space outside the realm of parliamentary politics to engage in activism. So I joined KARAPATAN in 2010. I have been its Secretary-General since 2012.

Connecting GFMP analytical framework with reality in the Philippines

The analysis of APWLD on Globalisation, Fundamentalisms, Militarisation and Patriarchy (GFMP) intersects much with what we are doing in KARAPATAN. APWLD contributed a lot to my process in coming to that perspective in conducting human rights work.

We have shared analyses concerning the Philippines since the mid-2000s, which included evaluating the local conditions. Neoliberal economic policies continue to impoverish women in the country. Agreements and policies laid out in multilateral trade agreements and platforms such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are set right now, as well as the roles of financial institutions such as the IMF and the Asian Development Bank. 

Fundamentalism plays a large role in promoting gender-based violence in the Philippines. Our society is heavily influenced by the Catholic Church, and other religions such as Islam. Some Christian organisations promote discrimination against believers who hold different beliefs, and they practice violence against women based on gender.

The militarisation of the Philippines has been very evident over the years. We analyse how the state and various forms of state violence against women, and the role of political and military hegemony, such as the US and China, in promoting domestic policies of governments including the Philippines in violating the political and civil rights of women and the general public.

For more than a decade, APWLD has worked with women’s movements and human rights groups to bring these issues to the attention of UN Human Rights mechanisms. As a result, APWLD has enabled the international community to become aware of these issues in the Philippines. 

From Task Force to Programme Organising Committee

I became a member of the WPPP Task Force at APWLD in 2006. WPPP came out with a book called Seethings and Seatings, illustrating stories of women involved in political exercises such as elections or governance and framing their engagement in political spaces to advance women’s rights and welfare.

The shift from the Task Force to the Programme Organising Committee (POC) was a decision based on an external evaluation of the role and growth of the Task Force, which I thought had served its purpose. The Programme Organising Committee needed to be put in place to democratise members’ further involvement in undertaking specific and thematic programme work and activities. Besides, there are also Activity Organising Committees, AOCs, which can involve members and non-members. POC and AOC are improvements from the Task Force structure.

I was lucky to have great fellow members in the Task Force, and we maintain our friendship and sisterhood even now. I think we became closer because of the issues we discuss and analyse together, even online. It was exciting. When you have a great bunch of women in the Task Force and eventually in the POC, who have the experience and passion for such discussions, you can come out with excellent regional analyses and activities.

As a Grounding the Global OC member since 2013

The Grounding the Global (GG) programme aims to bring the voices of grassroots women from the Asia-Pacific to global and regional levels. Its commonality with WPPP is its acknowledgement that these international and regional mechanisms should be filled or engaged in by grassroots women. 

Usually, New York and Geneva are the sites of those engagements, making it difficult for grassroots women to access these spaces. APWLD has filled that gap in terms of representation and in pushing for language in international instruments to uphold women’s rights.

The regional consultations that GG has been initiating annually provide grassroots women space and the opportunity to interact and engage with special procedures. It is important in raising national concerns and thematic issues concerning climate justice, trade and investment, and women human rights defenders.

GG was successful in building solidarity for women human rights defenders at risk has been one achievement. The support and solidarity APWLD provided for Filipino Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) has been historical. APWLD provided support for the engagement which introduced a groundbreaking report in the Philippines made by the UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston. In 2007, he conducted an official visit to the Philippines for the rise of extrajudicial killings. After Alston’s report, there was a drastic downward trend in killings. My experience is also an example of how APWLD has been supportive of WHRDs. Members of the secretariat and other regional council members have previously expressed views that they will continue to support WHRDs at risk when things worsen in the Philippines.

However, it is also important to provide solidarity support outside to pressure these regional and international mechanisms. How are trade and investment issues faced by women raised before formal and multilateral mechanisms? How can we occupy these available spaces? These are our challenges in the context of shrinking spaces, both at international and national levels. We need more time for discussion and analysis with other OC members to have synchronicity with these programmes to ensure that the women at the grassroots can engage and maximise these mechanisms.

Ways moving forward

Being a Regional Council (ReC) member is a great experience, especially working on improving the role of APWLD not only in the women’s movement but also in the daily lives of women in the region. It made me realise how great the role APWLD can play, considering the breadth of APWLD’s membership and work currently.

There are two issues in terms of membership. 

We must ensure that the current members remain strong. In the face of the attacks both by the state and fundamentalist groups, together with the pandemic, it is extremely important that we keep our members strong and develop their capacity.

We also need to expand our membership to East Asia. We have several core members in Central Asia and the Pacific, and we have powerful members in South Asia and Southeast Asia. But we need bolder strategies regarding East Asia, like China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Women in these countries and this subregion need our help. I wonder how we could do more for women in this subregion.

We should be concerned with what is happening in China. There are snippets of information, mostly from international human rights organisations. We feel how space, and even the press, is constricted in China, impacting the rest of those in the region. We need to do more for women’s issues because if we do not have a strong presence and support for women in China, it will affect our other activities.

APWLD has been very strong in addressing cross-movement concerns, not only by being visible but also by being outspoken. Macho culture still tries to dominate movements, including the trade union and even the human rights movements. When women of APWLD are there, macho men hesitate. We should continue to do more, especially in the labour, the trade union, and peasant movements to develop far greater unions.

My development as a women’s rights activist is parallel to my involvement with APWLD, broadening my perspectives. Grasp and analysis of the domestic situation are important, but looking at the experiences and analysis of our region with APWLD provides a framework that has been constructive for me, not just because of its principle and aspirations. Concrete and practical, my APWLD learnings taught me how to negotiate in international spaces and how to lobby with governments. I learned a lot from APWLD, and I hope I’m not the only one who can get to experience it. It should be an experience for many more, especially the younger generation because it will help frame women’s rights activism in the future.