Women’s Month is opening with no one held accountable for the billions stolen from the public coffers
By Dulce Amor RodriguezBulatlat.com
MANILA — Progressive women’s group Gabriela opened Women’s Month with a call to remove the 12 percent Value-Added Tax (VAT) and hold corrupt officials accountable, linking rising prices and deepening poverty to what it described as systemic plunder.
Two days before Women’s Month, Gabriela held a press conference in Quezon City to outline its demands for the March 8 mobilization on International Women’s Day. Leaders said the 12-percent value added tax (VAT) continues to burden poor families as it pushes up the prices of basic goods and services.
“Women’s Month is opening with no one held accountable for the billions stolen from the public coffers—funds taken from the taxes squeezed out of the poor. We are taxed every day, and we are robbed every day,” said Clarice Palce, secretary-general of Gabriela. “On March 8, thousands of women will march with one call: remove VAT, hold the corrupt accountable. Everyone involved must answer, from the bottom to the top.”
Photo by Adrian Puse/Altermidya
Women bear the brunt
Gabriela framed this year’s Women’s Month not as a celebration but as a protest against worsening economic conditions. The group said regressive taxation and corruption reinforce each other and deepen women’s hardship.
As primary household managers and caregivers, women absorb the daily impact of rising food prices, transport costs, electricity rates, and other essential expenses. Gabriela said wages remain too low to keep up with inflation, forcing families to cut back on basic needs.
Speakers also pointed to the situation of farmers and food producers, who receive limited government support while competing with imported agricultural products. They said these policies weaken local livelihoods and threaten food security, compounding the economic pressures faced by women in both rural and urban communities.
Services denied
Beyond household survival, Gabriela linked alleged corruption to the deterioration of public services.
The group said misuse of public funds deprives victims of violence against women of access to shelters, legal assistance, and other protection programs. It argued that corruption effectively denies women the support they urgently need.
Palce also criticized what she described as the use of public money for repression. “If the poor dare to fight back, our own taxes are used against us—to kill us and terrorize us into silence,” she said. She accused the government of allocating billions of pesos to surveillance and militarization while many children continue to face hunger and malnutrition.
Photo by Adrian Puse/Altermidya
“The people’s money is being drained to fund not only corruption, but also state terrorism—hallmarks of the Marcos and Duterte regimes,” Palce said, adding that public health and education services continue to deteriorate.
The press conference ended with a symbolic action with women “catching the big fish,” referring to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte. Organizers said they hold them accountable for what they described as massive corruption and the persistence of pork barrel practices in new forms.
March 8 mobilization
Gabriela urged women to join the mass action at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila on March 8 and to participate in simultaneous regional protests nationwide.
“The time for silent endurance is over,” Palce said. “Let our presence in the streets be the loudest indictment of a government that thrives on theft and state terror. Our voices must unite to demand an immediate end to the regressive taxes that starve our children and the systemic corruption that feeds the powerful.”
For Gabriela, Women’s Month is a platform to demand concrete economic relief and accountability. The group said March 8 will bring women to the streets not only to commemorate their struggles, but to confront what they describe as policies that continue to push them deeper into poverty. (AMU, RVO)
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