The struggle lives on…

“ We live our lives, we tell our stories. The dead continue to live by way
of the resurrection we give them, in telling their stories. The past becomes part of our present and thereby part of our future. We act individually and collectively in a process over time which builds the human enterprise and tries to give it meaning.
Being human means thinking and feeling; it means reflecting on the past and visioning into the future. We experience, we give voice to that experience;
others reflect on it and give it new form. That new form in turn, influences and shapes the way next generations experience their lives. That is why history matters.” -- (Lerner in Taguiwalo)

Intramuros symbolizes our past; a heritage site with a unique and important history.
No other site in the country holds as much national historical interest as Intramuros. Even its very ground is unique as it holds artifacts that recount the ages of trade even prior to Spanish conquest.

Intramuros continues to remind me of our struggles as one people. During the Spanish colonization, I imagined the resistance of Filipinos specially the babaylans who usually were seldom or not mentioned at all in our history books and articles.
During the tour in Intramuros, particularly in the oldest stone church in the country – The San Agustin Church, I was fascinated to do a profiling / gender analysis – to account how many males and females in the cemetery. Just to appease myself with a burning issue of women’s invisibility in history.

I learned from feminists that Spanish historians were shocked looking at babaylan dance in ritual. For them it was unthinkable for women to lead such rites, sounded trumphets, dancing, reciting prayer, drinking wine and even killing the pig and marking the foreheads of their husband with the pig’s blood.

Babaylans never touched the forehead of the Spaniards with blood. It was significant for them. For Babaylan only those with the same practice and beliefs will be touched and the gesture of not touching marked off the space between them and the newcomer, foreshadowing the great conflict ahead of them.

Spanish treated babaylan as woman possessed by the demons – has the power to heal the sick, foretell the future and save the dead from hell. The friars call them brujas (witches), maldita (evil) mala mujer (bad woman) and diabolica (satanic).

A Babaylan lament chanted as she danced telling them that this land will be changed and that other people will possess with another culture and other practices so the town will be utterly destroyed and to be subjugated.

This is the reason why babaylan led many resistances to Spanish colonization and Christianization.

Modern-day babaylan experience similar struggles with the raging issue on the reproductive health care law. Our representatives are like the friars who act very powerful, and to the point of sacrificing lives of many people suffering in abuses and burden. Despite the clamor of the people, our lawmakers are not responsive.

The voice of the people echoes – “To all our legislators, WE NEED a comprehensive reproductive health care law NOW.”


by: Lorna Mandin, is the Gendewr focal person for the local government in Davao City. The article is her output for the blog writing workshop during the RH Media Training.