President Duterte Isn't Targeting Those Guilty Women Just Because They're Women

I was running out of ideas to write especially for Women's Day. While I support women's rights but sad to say that it can be misused and abused -- just like martial law and hammers. Martial law which could have been used to protect safety of the citizens in times of crisis may end up getting used to abuse military power. Hammers which can be used for carpentry can be used to do a crime scene. Women's rights advocacy is no different when it can be misused and abused. The same can be true especially with certain women right now who are saying that President Rodrigo R. Duterte is targeting them solely because they are women.

Who are these women doing so? I can give you a few names. You can think about Leila De Lima whose incompetence has been highlighted -- not to mention she may be charged with sedition for setting up phony stories against the incumbent president. You have Maria Lourdes Sereno who is now under investigation (with due process) because of her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN). Maria Ressa's current predicament with her beloved CRappler has nothing to do with government tyranny or her being a woman -- she has broken the law more than once such as the foreign ownership rule (resulting to the Securities and Exchange Commission suspending it) AND her current BIR tax deficit. Also, Leni Loud Robredo isn't get criticized for being a woman -- it's because she's incompetent. Should we mention that Paulyn Ubial was fired from the Department of Health for her INCOMPETENCE and not because she's a woman?

If President Duterte was merely targeting women then let's do some more fact checks. There are a load of men who are getting hit by him for their shortcomings. These men are like former president Noynoy Aquino, Antonio Trillanes IV and Mar Roxas were targeted by him even if they were his fellow men. Should we mention that there were other men who got sacked such as former mayor Jed Mabilog and Alan La Madrid Purisima to name a few of the many men? Certain people also get fired even if they were men. So why are these guilty women now playing the #victimcard with the woman card? If he were anti-woman then we could talk about some people that he made a good decision with appointing. While I will still consider Mocha Uson to be a weakness but you can think of his support for the Public Attorney's Office.


Perhaps the biggest proof he's not targeting those guilty women because they are women is with his cooperation with PAO Chief (and who I dub as the de-facto Commission on Human Rights chairperson) Atty. Persida V. Rueda-Acosta. He has high respect for her especially that she's doing the job that CHR should be doing. Not to mention, aren't most of the violators that Atty. Acosta is sacking with President Duterte... mostly men?

It's time to think about the problem of the "woman card". Are we ignoring the fact if there's Count Dracula then there's also Elizabeth Bathory? If there's a wicked king then there's also a wicked queen. If it's wrong to hit a woman then it's also wrong to hit a man. The truth of the matter is that these women who want to use their gender as an excuse are so dead wrong. They shouldn't be surprised if women of competence bite them back. In fact, I wish women of integrity will be the ones to handle their places and replace them if possible -- so it will be "Walang iyakan." or no crying over their so-called imagined "gender inequality".