THERE was a time when the idea of having a woman senator did not exist. And when it did exist, it was deemed an impossible dream, if not improbable reality.
In 1947, the suffragette, educator and social worker, Geronima Josefa Pecson (December 19, 1895 – 31 July 1989) broke that glass ceiling and was elected first woman senator of the Philippines, landing third in the race.
She was followed by several other women who entered the Senate’s august halls in the next few years: women who were extolled not just because they happened to be women, but because they possessed the best leadership traits necessary in a chamber long seen as the proving ground for future presidents.
To name a few: Tecla San Andres Ziga, the first woman to top the Bar Examinations; Eva Estrada Kalaw, the first woman to be reelected senator; Helena Z. Benitez, the outstanding woman educator.
In the first elections after the democratic restoration of post-Edsa 1986, those who made it to the reopened Senate were outstanding as well, among them:
• Leticia Ramos-Shahani, the first member of the Philippine diplomatic corps who broke ranks with then dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos and also the first woman senator to be elected Senate President Pro Tempore in 1993;
• Santanina Rasul, the first Muslim woman senator;
• Miriam Defensor Santiago, the brilliant legislator who was elected as the first Filipino and Asian to sit as judge in the International Criminal Court (she later declined for health reasons, and died of lung cancer in 2017).
At the weekend, pollster Pulse Asia revealed the names on its Magic 12 circle in its latest survey of names that have been floated as possibly running in the May 2019 midterm elections, and guess what: the first five names are of women.
In the order of Pulse Asia’s poll ranking, they are: Grace Poe, Cynthia Villar, Pia Cayetano, Nancy Binay and Sara Duterte.
The only male politician to make it near to the Top 5 women is BusinessMirror columnist Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, who landed in the 5th-7th rungs, right after Sara.
Poe, Villar and Binay are reelectionist senators; Cayetano is a former senator who is now a congresswoman for Taguig, and Duterte is Davao City’s colorful and feisty mayor, the bright daughter of President Duterte and a lawyer like him.
Senate veterans cannot recall a time when women made a complete shutout of the Top 5 seats in a survey. And, if this is later reflected in the actual elections come May, it may be a first in the country’s political history.
But it won’t come as a surprise, for the world has long known how progressive the Philippines is when it comes to gender equality, with various matrices indicating a healthy balance between men and women in various sectors, including politics and governance.
Image credits: Ed Davad