Participants and organizers of NAC4PWA: (from left)
Christene Reyes, Chera Amlag, May Marquez, May Farrales,
Monica Urrutia, Joann Natalia Aquino and Lynn Farrales

Sharing stories of migration and struggle
Filipino women from the U.S., Canada to
gather in Seattle Oct. 5-7

Susana Blackwell was a Filipino mail-order bride brought to America by her new husband. She was hoping to find a better future. But she was gunned down in a Seattle courthouse, along with her unborn child, by her estranged husband. Also shot and killed was Susana’s Filipino American friend, who went to the courthouse to support Susana in her move to end her abusive and turbulent marriage.

In remembrance of Susana Blackwell’s brutal death, a historic gathering of American and Canadian women of Philippine ancestry will be held at Seattle University from Oct. 5 to Oct. 7.

For the organizers of the North American Consultation for Women of Philippine Ancestry (NAC4WPA), Susana stands as a symbol of the countless Filipino women whose displacement from the Philippines and existence in foreign countries has been marked by inequality, violence and a lack of genuine dignity.

An estimated 5,000 Filipino mail-order brides enter the U.S. every year. In Canada, the trafficking of Filipino mail-order brides verges on exploding into a situation similar to what’s happening in the U.S. In addition, an estimated 2,000 Filipinos leave the Philippines in desperation to try to escape the grinding poverty of one of Asia’s poorest countries.

In this era of globalization, driven by neo-liberal policies that commodify people as “internationally-shared human resources” to be bought and sold in the global market for cheap labor, the Philippines has become the world’s No. 1 migrant nation. A growing and very lucrative part of this commodification of labor migration is the sex trafficking of Filipino women and children.

Despite the recent terrorist attacks, the Filipino women are determined to go forward with their plans to hold NAC4WPA. “In the aftermath of the horrible terrorist acts in the U.S., we must press on in our North American gathering of Filipino women,” asserts Monica Urrutia of the Philippine Women Centre of British Columbia. “The threats of military retaliation and all-out war of the Bush administration makes our gathering even more important and urgent as our women have historically been in the line of fire.”

From the Philippine-American War of 1899 that sowed the seeds of military prostitution in the Philippines, to the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II that forced Filipino “comfort women” into sexual slavery for foreign soldiers, to today’s return of U.S. military bases through the Visiting Forces Agreement, the threat of all-out war invokes extreme concern. For Filipino women, the victims of sexual slavery of the wars perpetuated by the world’s superpowers must always be remembered, never again repeated, and intensely resisted.

“The symposium will provide women from all over North America with a venue to collectively resist a war that would mean more death and destruction for our women and children,” asserts Cecilia Diocson, a member of the Consultation’s Secretariat. “Although these are troubling times for the whole world, we have an opportunity to come together as Filipino women and collectively discuss and come out with a strong position on how an imminent war will impact us in the long term,” she adds.

The gathering of 300 Filipino women from major Canadian and American cities aims to tackle these kinds of pressing and urgent issues and will offer women a unique and empowering opportunity to make sense of this reality. This huge teach-in will also serve as a basis for Filipino women to come together to share stories and to understand the personal and collective history of the Filipino people’s migration, struggle and resistance.

Through such guest speakers as Philippine Congresswoman Liza Maza, internationally acclaimed novelist and activist Ninotchka Rosca, former president of National Action Committee on the Status of Women in Canada Sunera Thobani and other Filipino activists, conference organizers see the gathering as a way of forwarding the long-standing struggle of Filipino women for the genuine equality, development and peace of Filipino women and all Filipinos.

“As a second-generation Filipino Canadian, I am truly looking forward to this upcoming North American gathering,” said Dr. Lynn Farrales, vice chair of the Philippine Women Centre of B.C. “For years, I have struggled with my identity as a woman and as a Filipino. To partake in this conference will be an important step towards understanding my community’s history and building towards our future. I am excited to be part of this history of Filipino women and to integrate with other women in other parts of the world, especially women from the Philippines.”

The North American Consultation for Women of Philippine Ancestry will be held at Seattle University, Pigott Building from Oct. 5 to Oct. 7. For more information, call the GABRIELA Network, Seattle Chapter at (206) 762-2554 or e-mail purplerose206@hotmail.com.