Gabriela Women’s Party filed its certificate of nomination and acceptance on October 4, Monday.
“We are poised to continue women’s winning streak in the partylist race as we amplify women’s voices amid the pandemic and crisis!! We vow to continue championing the demands of marginalized women who are carrying the brunt of the worsening crisis and Duterte government’s failed pandemic response. Natatanging boses pa rin tayo ng kababaihan!” the party-list stated.
Gabriela is one of the party lists red-tagged by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). The anti-communist task force has sought to disqualify the party-list since May 2019.
Gabriela is falsely accused of being funded by foreign non-government organizations. The party-list is also groundlessly accused of terrorism as they have been staunch in criticizing the Duterte administration in its atrocities against and negligence on the people.
The party denies all allegations, and alongside other oppositions of the Duterte administration, Gabriela stays unfazed and remains steadfast in upholding and advancing women’s rights and welfare.
The Kabataan Party-list (KPL) was also petitioned by the NTF-ELCAC for disqualification due to alleged recruitment of students and youth leaders, as well as the indoctrination of “thinly veiled communist principles.”
KPL Representative Sarah Elago lambasts the task force’s petition to cancel their registration, and asserts it as “plain and brazen red-tagging.” KPL cites NTF-ELCAC’s status as a mere task force thereby having no “juridical entity of its own,” and fabrication of evidence in rebuking the state force’s said petition.
In the Office of the Solicitor General-crafted (OSG) petition filed by the task force, it also regarded the discussion of one’s Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression (SOGIE) as illegal, which KPL refutes and condemns.
KPL asserts “its discussion is rather encouraged by many sectors” in helping achieve gender equality.
“Mataas na kaso ng pang-aabuso, tumitinding kahirapan, bulok at kinorap na serbisyong pangkalusugan—ilan ito sa maraming batayan kung bakit dapat palakasin ang boses ng kababaihan sa Kongreso,” Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Arlene Brosas of Gabriela Party added.Gabriel Party-list has principally authored 517 bills (e.g., HB00219/An Act Increasing The Minimum Salaries Of Public School Teachers and Other Government Employees and Augmenting The Personnel Economic Relief Allowance, among others) and co-authored 21 bills (e.g., HB00258/An Act Prohibiting Discrimination on The Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity or Expression (SOGIE) and Providing Penalties Therefore, among others).
Featured image courtesy of Gabriela Women’s Party
