DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 20 September) —  Women in their 70s and 80s may no longer be able to join Sunday’s street protests as they did in their younger years but they can still call for an end to corruption by bringing their advocacies to the malls.

That is what a group of women aged 61 to 80, did on Friday afternoon at the SM City Davao mall. Their key messages on their shirts and hats: “Stop flooding us with corruption” and “Marcos-Duterte panagutin” (Hold Marcos-Duterte accountable).

“We have been doing this for five decades,” from Marcos Sr. to Marcos Jr., said Maria Morales, also known as Jinky. She was referring to speaking up and fighting for causes larger than themselves when they were students under the Marcos dictatorship, an activism carried across the decades until the present administration.

Curious mallers took photos of the four women in black shirts walking around from the main building to the annex, one of them using a cane. A male customer in a café smiled as he read the messages on the back of the shirts of Morales, 80; Belo Caharian, 79; Agnes Miclat-Cacayan, 71 – all of Women of  Peace, and Memen Lauzon-Gatmaytan, 61, of the Forum for Truth and Honesty by Women for Integrity, Transformation and Hope (FORTHWITH). 

“Very good,” he said. 

A female sales attendant asked “nganong Marcos-Duterte?” (why Marcos-Duterte”?)

“Pareho lang sila (They’re the same), Memen replied. 

“Pareho lang sila,” Belo said as she approached the sales attendant and explained that some people may think corruption is happening only now but it’s been happening for a long time, including the administrations of Duterte and Marcos. “Kita man gyud mga tao ang nagasuffer sa ilang pangpangawat” (We are the ones who suffer the consequences of corruption), she said. 

Twenty-five years ago, during the “all-out war” waged by the Estrada administration against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the group of Agnes, Belo and Maria waged a peace campaign as “Women in White.” 

Every day for 40 days, they stood on street corners of this city to call for an end to the “all-out war.”  Never mind if there were only two or three of them. 

They cannot be expected to stand on street corners now, given their ages and the extreme heat. But on May 10, they gathered for a silent rally in support of the candidacy of Mags Maglana for 1^st district representative against the candidates from political dynasties. There were 25 of them who gathered on the streetside, their messages of support written on tarpaulins. 

The malling activity they intend to do every Friday. “As far as we can, every Friday,” Agnes said. Other friends who are part of Women of Peace were unable to join. 

“We want to show to the public our rage against corruption,” Belo said in Cebuano. 

“Kanang corruption, masabtan man gyud na sa ordinaryong mga tawo kung muingon kag  pagpangawat man gyud ni, pagpangawat sa kuwarta nga angay ibutang sa mga  proyekto ug angay makatabang sa mga ordinaryong mga tao” (Ordinary citizens easily understand that corruption means stealing people’s money that should have gone to projects and help the public). 

Agnes explained they chose black “to express our rage.” 

But she stressed, “we are an independent black group, by the way.”

The group decided on the color black long before Vice President Sara Duterte posted an open invitation Wednesday for “Pray for the Philippines” on Sunday, September 21. She urged participants to wear green, black or other Duterte shirts when they gather to pray and feast over a hundred roasted cattle. 

The Vice President was impeached early this year on various grounds including alleged graft and corruption.  But the impeachment trial at the Senate not proceed because the Supreme Court in July unanimously declared the Articles of Impeachment unconstitutional.  The court said the decision was not absolving Duterte from any charges against here but said any subsequent impeachment complaint “may only be filed starting February 6, 2026.” 

Also on Sunday, the 53^rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law by then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., a  protest action against corruption will be held at Freedom Park along Roxas Avenue — “Dabawenyos’ Protest Against Corruption and Accountability” —  led by the Citizens Rage Against Corruption, an alliance of organizations, communities, and individuals.

Truth 

“We have been wearing black in past protests, like during GMA’s (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo)  time, against the (RP-US) Balikatan exercises. We were also, of course, in white. That’s why we were called Women in White during Erap’s time to protest the all-out war in Mindanao,” Agnes said. 

“Now we’re back in black because we are nagluluksa (grieving), raging, we are indignant, we are enraged,” she added. 

In May, Agnes described their group as “almost like a barkada, the sisterhood. We are writers, we are child advocates, we are IP advocates, we are even madres (nuns) and book authors.” 

At the snackbar where they had their merienda, the group lamented how people talk about accountability and transparency but seem to have forgotten that the Articles of Impeachment filed against the Vice President included alleged graft and corruption. “Nakalimutan na” (It’s been forgotten), the group said.  They reiterated their  message –  “Marcos-Duterte panagutin.”

Memen, the youngest senior citizen among the group, told MindaNews that when she learned that Maria, Belo and Agnes and other members of the Women of Peace were planning to go malling to express their protest, she decided to join them. 

“They are the statement. They fought Marcos Sr. when they were in their 20s and at their ages now, having seen the corruption across administrations from Marcos Sr. to Marcos Jr.,  it is time to end this system once and for all. Let us not pass this on to the next generation. It has to stop now. We need to urge our fellow Filipinos, our fellow Dabawenyos to speak out now and show their rage,” she said. 

The four were happy with the impact of their small act. “Educational, isn’t it?” Maria said.

“We caught people’s attention,” said Memen. “It was a good strategy, very simple and doable,” the messages were self-explanatory “and people are already aware kaya mas na-emphasize and deliver ang message that even the Dutertes are liable and must be made accountable.” 

Maria told MindaNews they decided to do this protest action because “all of these projects … flood control projects and all of this, all of this started at the time of the Marcos and Duterte administrations. And so we must reach back as far as that and see to the bottom of it and make people answerable.”

“But we are also reaching out for peace and eventually that’s what we want,” Maria said, adding that this is why “we want the unity of the Filipino people here. And we cannot have the unity unless we know the truth. What is the truth to all of these projects in all of these administrations?”  (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)