Breaking Barriers: Pushing for Gender Equality and Progress in UP

Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc

March 1

"Your laughter echoed through the triumphs, and your comforting presence provided solace during the challenges. The shared experiences and camaraderie made my college years unforgettable." Ephh, shown doing field work in Kabayan, Benguet, acknowledges the love and compassion of her friends.

Ephh is glowing, head held high, as she marches down the aisle of the Baguio Country Club Convention Center, a candidate for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Sciences, major in Anthropology, minor in Psychology. Red, black, and white stripes on her collar, sleeves, belt, and pants replicate the Ibaloy Indigenous Weaving Motif of Benguet. The UP Sablay hangs from her shoulder, where it meets her long wavy hair, to her hip.

"No matter what my identity was in UP Baguio as a member of different marginalized sectors, I was able to fully experience life as a student, which I could not have experienced in another university," she later tells the UP Forum.

The eyes of the fresh graduate tear up as she recalls how, coming from the poorer sector of her remote, underserved community, she was able to gain a foothold in the country's most prestigious university. She was right about the school as one that would nurture her for all that she was. Having received her diploma, she gives back to her community not just a UP graduate, with magna cum laude honors, but also a community achiever staying loyal to her ancestors, to the earth that her family tills, and to herself.

Her Sablay, in turn, symbolizes a body of sociological-anthropological work which pays homage to her culture, and a veritable watershed case in traditional, conservative, and remote environments such as hers, up in Luzon's tallest mountain, considered the playground of the gods.

As she blossoms in academia, many pieces fall into place to form the bigger picture of her identity. The picture includes a University that gives freedom for one to make choices and gives space for the individual's many inescapable contexts.

"Pilmi iyaman tan dadsak kod emin ja semek tan anus ja en-akan jo son sikak"

The picture thus includes, first and foremost, her family and community. "My family's unwavering support has been the cornerstone of my achievements. I am profoundly grateful for the enduring strength and belief they've instilled in me, shaping the person I am today," she says.

"UP Baguio Paggawisan Tako Am-In or PAGTA, a socio-cultural organization that has served as my Indigenous circle, and the Program for Indigenous Cultures helped me thrive on campus," she then points out. She cites the lifeline extended by the UPB Office of Scholarship and Financial Assistance (SLAS and other Financial Programs) and the National Commission on Indigenous People–Benguet, which allowed her to focus on her studies and personal growth.

She speaks of the transformative power of academic freedom and "enrichment" of different kinds of students of UP Baguio, clearly evidenced with the faculty members and teaching fellows of the Anthropology and Psychology Divisions at the College of Social Sciences. "The resources, mentorship, openness and opportunities provided have significantly shaped my educational path, " she recalls.

"Sapay kuma undite-diteng kayon emin!"

Things fought for

Thus, little by little, the liberal tradition of the University is making space for positive changes in the lives of the marginalized, many of them rendered as such on many levels. By her own example, Ephh is a champion of authenticity and self-determination which both UP and her community value.

The university continues to work on being a safe space for the expression of all identities. Its liberal tradition may have encouraged people of diverse persuasions to find their niche, succeed, and be liberated from the pressures of society that may lead them to disavow their identities. But to remain free of society's creeping norms and lingering power structures is a continuing battle.

One that has a powerful hold in society is the man/woman binary, with the man still having the upper hand. This has been a long drawn out battle for women. Feminist activists paved the way for more marginalized sectors to assert themselves against the oppression of a hetero-normative society. Even in the University, there was a need for women to assert equality. By the late 1980s, a group of women needed to organize themselves so that the University could establish an institution to promote gender equality.

*In the middle of the Center's driveway stands "Dakila", a piece of feminist art, which CWGS describes as a "symbol of the strong, virile, empowered Filipina spirit". Photo by Misael Bacani, UP MPRO.*

Thus, the Center for Women's Studies was born.

The Magna Carta for Women was passed in 2009, further bolstering the Center's mandate. Obviously coming from a man/woman binary mindset, the law mentioned LGBTQI+ rights only as an emerging issue. But gender rights advocacy had gone past emergence in the University, with Babaylan, the pioneering university-based gay advocacy organization, established in the early 1990s. The Center was ready not just to spearhead implementing the Magna Carta in the University, but also to lead the way in formulating details of its LGBTQI+ provision.

"This was highlighted during the time of [Sylvia E.] "Guy" Claudio [CWS director from 2008 to 2014], who was an advocate of the LGBTQI+ community. We were partners with the Babaylan. At that time, we were also advocating the passage of the Magna Carta for Women," Gina Chan, research associate of the Center, recalls.

The Center is currently in partnership with activist LGBTQI+ groups Babaylanes Inc., Lagablab Network, the Library Foundation, and Galang Philippines. "There should be genuine friendships among activists because of shared beliefs and set of values," Marby Villaceran, the current director of the CWGS, says. Atty. Leo Batad was on board in drafting the first UP gender guidelines.

"The Center supports the LGBTQI+ movement," Villaceran affirms. "We should not represent them, because they can represent themselves and can instigate change on their own. What we can do is amplify their voices, give safe space and resources for whatever activity they need, and be people they can safely trust to work with them," she points out.

UP the rainbow university

As the Gender and Development (GAD) office of the UP System, CWS coordinated with the GAD offices of all the constituent universities in conducting a gender audit and drafting gender guidelines for the entire university. Gender guidelines were legally mandated on institutions by the Magna Carta for Women in 2009. Localizing the Magna Carta with its partners, the CWS grew from being merely a center of women's studies and coordinating body for implementing a legal mandate to an advocate of rights protection of "all members of the community regardless of sex, gender, sexual/gender orientation and identity".

Resulting from consultations with and feedback gathered from stakeholders, offices, and organizations in all the CUs, UP's gender guidelines feature provisions that go beyond issues stemming from the men/women binary. In UP Baguio, Ephh is fully aware of the space afforded to LGBTQIA+ through the efforts of Kasarian Studies Program, UPB's GAD office. With UPB's expertise in the preservation of the cultural traditions of the Cordilleras, Northern Luzon, and Cagayan Valley, and its catchment of IP constituents, its GAD office input is nuanced with the IP experience.

In 2015, the CWS was appropriately renamed the Center for Women's and Gender Studies. This reflected the University's commitment to "creating enabling mechanisms for enriching knowledge in the complexity and overlapping topics of women's issues, gender, sexuality, and the different systems of society".

"Activism is pushing for something—not always against something. It's pushing that something right to be done," Villaceran adds, touching on the pioneering aspect of activism. UP's gender guidelines were a first, and have been used by many other educational institutions and LGUs as the basis of their own gender guidelines.

They know that UP's activism for the rainbow cause is always a benchmark. Most feminist activists in the University are scholars, Villaceran says. "As a research center, we always start on the ground: the attitudes, the perceptions, what's happening."

Now regularly conducted, the University gender audits are rich sources of knowledge. Recent cases of mis-gendering and dead-naming, and other evidence gathered from the University are investigated to update gender policies. Like all knowledge, gender knowledge expands and thus necessitates new action. From the beginning, it has not just been the Magna Carta for Women or a pending SOGIE bill which has guided University policy on gender issues.

"Even before the policy, we already had guidelines against sexual harassment," Chan says. "The Center was laboratory for programs before they could take off on their own," Villaceran adds. She mentions providing proofs of concepts for programs, such as the Lunas Collective chatline during the pandemic and the Ba-Yi training of leaders for feminist transformative leadership, where the leaders are able to pass pro-gender ordinances in their localities. The Center also provides a training laboratory for gender advocacy and sensitivity in traditional and new media. Recently, CWGS supported the establishment of the Rainbow Research Hub, which provides access to educational resources for doing LGBTQI+ research.

The Center continues to provide the rainbow community with the brushes to paint their colors in the canvas of society.