PITCHING IN

Holding a canao in Malacanang
ESTHER DAWN PACLIM

Because women can do everything, now is the season to do so. They might do the country good by going to Malacanang and do a canao. This is suggested to 200 or so and to a few good men, who celebrated the International Women’s Day at the newly built LTB gymnasium where they could invoke God’s mercy with the power of prayer.

La Trinidad, Benguet Mayor Artemio Galwan said in the light of the present political and social turmoil, in some probability, the Philippines must have fallen under a curse spelled by Manuel L. Quezon when he said that he would rather see the Philippines ruled like hell by the Filipinos than like heaven by Americans.

The mayor noted that the state of the Philippines is now in some kind of prophecy -- the Philippines under one president after another either has actually been ruled like hell or has been attacked by hell from all sides.

The mayor, who is serving his first term, said that women should not underestimate what they can do. They can do another Indira Gandhi, Golda Meier, or Margaret Thatcher in their own little special ways.

He added that the role of women has changed tremendously in that they have become assertive – a reason for them not to pity themselves. In fact they have so much power in their hands that they can make or unmake a nation; can bring about the motherly leadership this nation desperately needs; can uphold the persistence and wisdom that brings peace; and, can found the solid leadership that begets a solid nation.

With our kind of Ibaloi women power, the canao they may perform in Malacanang might dissipate the curse that has fallen on Philippine governance. In the Benguet hinterlands, a ritual, the canao, is performed to dispel curse.

However, such power must be handled with care, the mayor advised. He added that as good citizens, they must not launch out to destroy the nation but should properly exercise such power gained.

Vice-Mayor Samuel Esguerra shared to the same group of women that through the years, LTB women have gone a long way and have gained leadership prominence in governance as elected officials and office heads.

To mention a few: Priscilla Baban has earned the distinction of being the town’s first lady councilor who went on to become first lady vice-mayor. Cecily Laoyan-Sagubo was a councilor, Josephine Gacad was a councilor who also became vice mayor while Edna C. Tabanda was councilor, then became first lady mayor, then later made it to become Benguet’s first number two highest official.
Rosemarie Dulnuan, the occasion’s guest speaker, said that indeed, strength and power can be drawn from prayer and silence, in that the practice could unite and benefit the nation. Prayer and silence give the nation time to calculate how it can appropriately surmount the odds. And why not, why do we not become a nation of prayer?

Ms Dulnuan, who herself is a well-accomplished businesswoman and pharmacist, said that solving our nation’s turmoil boils down to ourselves –to what we can do as individuals to the kind of value system we develop and to the quality of perception and thoughts we develop.

Spearheaded by the La Trinidad municipal social welfare development office and Women’s Federation, the International Women’s Day was celebrated with the theme: “CEDAW ng Bayan, Yaman ng Kababaihan.” CEDAW is an acronym for Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women.