Women's month observance; Bishop Cortes wants more push promoting equal rights for women

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Bishop Julito Cortes of the Diocese of Dumaguete said there is now a need to strongly promote women's rights in a society and address the unequal rights between men and women.

Bishop Cortes issued his statement in relation to Tuesday's International Women's Rights Day celebration.

"I believe there has to be a continuous formation of minds of people about the equality and value of men and women," said Cortes in a statement issued for the International Women's Rights Day observance.

Cortes, who was once the parish priest of the Sto. Rosario parish in Cebu City where Kahupayan, a crisis intervention center for women, was established and continued to help abused women to this day, said he wanted to replicate this in the Diocese of Dumaguete.

In this Year of Mercy, Pope Francis had asked that people must not only be merciful but also show complete acts of mercy, especially to the people in the peripheries, said Cortes, adding that one way of achieving this would be to put up structures of mercy, such as Kahupayan, where women and girls, victims of abuse, can seek intervention and help.

Despite the various movements and groups trumpeting about the rights of women, the bishop said gender inequality is still prevalent in society, with women on the verge of accepting they were not equal to the men in most aspects. — (FREEMAN)