Text & photos by Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie
While State of the Nation Address (Sona) attendees were in their usual glitz and glamour, some went beyond the superficial and wore symbolic attires at the red carpet. Outside the Batasan, meanwhile, two faces of protests were again on display. And the President would not be cowed.
Duterte, true to his confrontational nature, talked to protesters outside the Batasan minutes after delivering his second Sona, sharing to them his frustration over the “attempts” on his life when his security escorts were attacked on different occasions recently, while left-leaning groups were demanding that the peace talks be continued.
Duterte, amid shouts and chants of slogans from protesters, said for the peace talks to resume, there should be mutual respect.
The President had already said he is dropping the peace talks with communist rebels. “If you don’t want to respect me, that’s what I will give you; you forget about me. You don’t intimidate me,” Duterte told activists.
But while the President’s speech both inside and outside the session hall displayed his in-your-face style anew, the attires of the attendees also directly showed their advocacies and concerns.
Deputy Speaker Bai Sandra Sema of the First District of Maguindanao led woman-legislators in wearing the Mindanaoan-inspired Inaul to reflect concerns over the conflict in Mindanao. Sema said Inaul, a fabric woven by a great race, is synonymous with Maguindanao.
“It is a symbol of royalty of a great nation that once ruled a huge part of Mindanao—if not all of Mindanao,” she said. Inaul was worn by the royalties of Maguindanao as they moved around their vast territory through the riverways that served as the highways of the olden days, she added.
At present, Sema said the Inaul does not only represent the rules of the sultanate of this magnificent land, but has expanded its meaning to amplify the greatness of the people of Maguindanao.
“Like a single thread of cotton or silk, or even gold, which is weak alone but strong when weaved together with another, Maguindanaoans seldom act individually, for they believe that in unity there is strength,” she said. The lawmaker added that Inaul represents how Maguindanaoans preserve their inheritance, strengthen their unity, nourish their culture, defend their land and share their bounty.
To show her ardent support for the fight for regularization of contractual workers, Party-list Rep. Emmi A. de Jesus of Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) wore a barong bearing a “Regular Jobs Now” beadwork in Monday’s Sona. De Jesus is the principal author of House Bill 1045, or the regular employment bill, a measure that seeks to ban contractualization.
“Gabriela conveys its full support to mounting calls for the regularization of endo workers, especially as thousands of workers from Mindanao and other regions are converging along Commonwealth Avenue today to prod President Duterte to end contractualization, as what was promised during the election period,” she said.
De Jesus’s barong was created by Ruel Rivera from Marikina, while the beadwork was done by Gabriela Youth members and BS Clothing Technology students Kat Estrella and Marianne del Rosario from UP Diliman.
Party-list Rep. Arlene D. Brosas, also of GWP, meanwhile, was in a black dress created by activist Anna Vania Fatallia and handpainted by former political prisoner Voltaire Guray with a “No To Martial Law” artwork, depicting the people’s “resistance” to the creeping authoritarian rule.
Sen. Loren B. Legarda wore an ethnic-inspired dress with an off-shoulder cream top and a full-length red and brown skirt patterned with tribal decorations.
Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto of the Sixth District of Batangas stunned in a multi-colored ethnic dress covered with a translucent off-white bolero.
Meanwhile, other lawmakers and guests still opted to don glamorous outfits amid the simplicity of the event. This, despite the appeal of Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez of Davao del Norte to attendees to wear simple or business attire as dress code for the guests of the annual event.
Heart Evangelista, a celebrity and wife of Sen. Francisco G. Escudero, wore a navy blue and gold-striped blazer with a pair of navy blue pants.
Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos came in a rich purple barong-like blouse embroidered with golden diamond patterns with matching metallic gold pants.
Protests
However, unlike the President’s first Sona, effigies were burned by militant groups, while pro- and anti-administration rallies were held by various organizations in the Batasang Pambansa grounds.
GWP members marched to once more bring forward women’s demands for regular jobs and homes.
De Jesus and Brosas met with women from various sectors and urban-poor communities to receive a letter that they hope to hand over to the President.
“Duterte promised job creation and inclusive growth. We were moved by his very strong pronouncements against oligarchs and his consistent declaration of putting an end to contractualization. But one year into his administration, the practice of endo still prevails and, worse, this was even legitimized with its DO [department order] 174. President Duterte is nowhere near fulfilling his promise,” de Jesus said.
“There is no inclusive growth. There is no job creation; 16.22 million women are shut out of the labor force. The economy remains backward and fails to employ women in productive sectors,” she added.
Party-list Rep. Ariel B. Casilao of Anakpawis and other Makabayan Coalition lawmakers marched with about 7,000 farmers coming from the Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon and the Mindanao regions to demand genuine agrarian reform, nationalist industrialization, a stop to all-out war in the countryside and end to martial law in Mindanao.
Other groups also expressed their demand for housing, holding Duterte to his word against any demolitions without consequent relocation with various government projects threatening to displace them from their communities.
Also, Anakbayan joined the people in massive protest actions expressing indignation against the extension of martial law in Mindanao, the President’s long list of “broken promises, and his regime’s triple wars of death and destruction”.
“We are one with the Filipino people in strongly condemning Duterte’s genocidal ‘war on drugs’ that has killed an estimated 12,000 people. We strongly oppose his regime’s disastrous ‘antiterror war’ that has led to the destruction of Marawi. We denounce his ‘all-out war’ against the revolutionary movement,” the group added.
Meanwhile, an estimated 50,000 people from different groups marched to the Batasang Pambansa Complex on Monday to express their support to the Duterte administration. These groups include Kilusang Pagbabago, led by incoming Office on Participatory Governance Undersecretary Penpen Libres, Kilusang Pagbabago Metro Manila Movement, Federation of Business and Service Organizations, Citizen Crime Watch, Guardians Brotherhood and Hugpong Federal Movement of the Philippines.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza