How Filipinas first got to vote

From men we are separated only by a difference of sex, which is no justification for the inequality in our rights. Men and women together are the essence of the human race, and our common humanity is the essence of all our rights.” With those lines Natividad Almeda opened her appeal for gender equality, in flawless Spanish, at the Philippine Assembly in Nov. 1918. She was an unlikely guest speaker there. The Legislature was a virtual men’s club, off limits to females except cleaning women and canteen waitresses. And Almeda was only 26, belittled as too puerile to comprehend political and economic rights. Yet she had earned the credentials to argue her cause. She had graduated from law school and passed the bar exam four years earlier. At that time, an American newspaper reporter noted, she was the only female practicing lawyer in the archipelago.

Almeda did win male adherents of women’s rights, but not the most important of all – the right to vote and be voted upon. The assemblymen babbled that the sweet womanliness of the Filipina should be insulated from political discord to preserve the sweetness of the home. Almeda would have none of such patronizing. Not only for homemaking, Filipinas like Gabriela Silang, Tandang Sora, Gregoria de Jesus and the Rizal sisters had participated in major social upheavals. Women in Almeda’s time could be haled to court and were made to pay taxes, yet could not elect those who imposed taxes. Taxation without representation was tyranny. Inspired by earlier women suffragists Pura Villanueva Kalaw and Concepcion Felix Rodriguez, Almeda barnstormed Southern Tagalog for the next decade-and-a-half, speaking in town plazas. Among her fellow-suffragists were Paz Policarpio Mendez, Beatriz Ronquillo, Geronima Pecson, and the very young Helena Benitez.

Almeda was resolute. She was trained to be so from youth. Born the eldest of six sisters in Sept. 1892, she grew up competitive in fencing, shooting and equestrian sports. Her father was Manuel Gomez Almeda, a colonel in the Katipunan, of Biñan, Laguna; mother Severina Martinez Lerma, daughter of a Chinese mestizo builder, of adjacent Santa Rosa. As a teenager Almeda was involved in various charities. A family financial reversal forced her to work to help bring food to the table, while taking up law in night school. Being the only female in her law class, and the butt of ridicule, didn’t deter Almeda. She defied convention. She married at age 30, late for her time, Domingo Lopez, former governor of Tayabas and Marinduque, a widower with four children. She retained her surname, affixing her husband’s. Instead of becoming a politician’s wife, she stuck to her job and charities in Manila while Lopez practiced law in Lucena. They begot three children.

While campaigning for women suffrage Almeda-Lopez worked as assistant solicitor in the Attorney General’s Office. In 1931 she became the country’s first female judge, manning the night court for five years. After serving ten years as executive judge of the City Court of Manila, she was appointed presiding judge when the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court was opened in 1956. In 1961 she became the first female justice, in the Court of Appeals.

At last in 1934 the women’s suffragists won legislative consent. But victory was short-lived. The 1935 Constitution came into effect with a new set of rules. A plebiscite first had to be held in two years, in which women must gather at least 300,000 yes votes to gain suffrage. On April 30, 1937, 81 years ago today, 447,725 Filipinas voted yes. Three years later, in the election of Dec. 1940, the first few women candidates ran for local office. They emulated the steeliness of (my grand-aunt) Natividad Almeda Lopez.

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To mark that historic event, election lawyer Romy Macalintal will give a free seminar today for women candidates of the May 14 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. The lecture will be held at 9 a.m., first come-first served, at the Ground Floor, Federation Center, Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Muelle de Binondo near Jose Abad Santos General Hospital, Manila. For registration, interested candidates may call: Jhay Balboa, +63905 6913545; Melinda Lugtu, +63905 2553311; Eliza delos Santos, +63933 2272944; Lorna Jovero, +63922 8488942.

Topics: rules and regulations governing the barangay and SK polls, and what candidates and their watchers should know before, during and after the election. Also, rules on election propaganda materials, appreciation of ballots, and prevention of electoral fraud.

Macalintal explains the inspiration for his free lecture: “Since the first election in the Philippines on Jan. 15, 1907, and even upon the adoption of the 1935 Constitution, only male Filipino citizens at least 23 years old were eligible to vote. Women were regarded merely as ‘extensions of their husbands or fathers, unfit to participate in the affairs of government. But not after the intrepid 447,725 Filipinas stood up in defiance.”

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An interesting theory is being floated around. That if the Supreme Court removes Maria Lourdes Sereno, it would only be as Chief Justice. She would revert to SC Associate Justice. That’s because the quo warranto complaint questions only her lack of qualifications to become Chief Justice in 2012, not Associate Justice in 2010. That would leave the SC in a peculiar situation of having 15 justices but no Chief.

That’s unlikely to happen. Five plus one justices who despise Sereno will use all sorts of legalisms to oust her from the Court altogether. The five had testified against her at the House of Reps’ determination of probable cause to impeach. A petition has been filed for them to inhibit from ruling on the quo warranto for perceived bias, but they refused. If they can find alibis to not recuse, they can also find excuses to kick out Sereno. The sixth justice reportedly has a personal ax to grind against her. How many of the eight remaining justices they can convince will be known in 11 days.

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