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Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal noted that the
right of Filipino women to participate in public and political
affairs was given full recognition for the first time on April 30,
1937.
“It was the day when, through
your firmness and determination to fight for your right and break
the bondage of discrimination, you proved that there exists a
fundamental equality before the law between women and men,”
Macalintal said in a statement.
He offered a toast to the 447,725
Filipino women who, 71 years ago, trooped to the polls and voted
affirmatively in a plebiscite to extend the right of suffrage to
them.
Macalintal also noted that the
first election law was Act No. 1582, which took effect on January
15, 1907.
At the time, he said, the right
of suffrage was limited to male citizens 23 years of age or over
with legal residence in the Philippines. Women, the election lawyer
said, were not allowed to vote for they were regarded as “mere
extension of the personality of their husbands or fathers, and that
they were not fit to participate in the affairs of the
government.”
Macalintal pointed out that even
the 1935 Constitution limited the right of suffrage to male
citizens. But, he said, the framers of the Constitution, recognizing
the strong call and clamor made by women’s groups then for
equality between men and women in the exercise of the right of
suffrage, decided to leave the issue of woman suffrage for the women
themselves to decide.
Hence, Macalintal said, a
provision was included in the 1935 Constitution to extend the right
of suffrage to Filipino women on condition that “not less than
[300,000] women possessing the necessary qualifications shall vote
affirmatively” in a plebiscite on the question of woman suffrage.
The women of the 1930s, he added,
showed their firm resolve to obtain the required number of votes
that would pave the way for their participation in government
affairs. They strongly argued that “women suffer penalties and are
summoned before the courts of law” and are made “to pay taxes”
under the laws which “they had no voice in making.” These women
made clear their point that “taxation without representation is
tyranny.”
During the plebiscite on April
30, 1937, a total of 447,725 women cast their votes in favor of
woman suffrage. These voters, Macalintal said, paved the way for
“woman power.”
Significantly, the election
lawyer further noted, then-President Ferdinand Marcos on March 29,
1984, issued Proclamation No. 2346 declaring April 30 of every year
as “Woman Suffrage Day.”
Woman Suffrage Day was envisioned
to enable Filipino women to “renew their advocacy and support for
clean, honest, and free elections and pursue with greater zeal their
efforts toward this direction.”
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