SPEAK UP. Members of women's groups hold placards stating their rights during the International Women's Day celebration at People's Park in Baguio City on Friday (March 8, 2024). Women’s rights and welfare are expected to get further boost with the creation of Men Opposed to Violence Against Women Everywhere support groups. (PNA photo by Liza T. Agoot)
BAGUIO CITY – The city government sees more men helping promote women’s welfare and rights with the creation of the group Men Opposed to Violence Against Women Everywhere (MOVE).
Councilor Elmer Datuin, chair of the Committee on Social Services, Senior Citizens and Women, said MOVE organizations will be present at the city level as well as in 128 villages.
"We will have the greater participation of men as far as violence against women is concerned. We are promoting the suppression of violence against women through the participation of men,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Women's Day celebration at People's Park here on Friday.
"The men will be more aware that no violence against women must be committed because men and women are partners in violence against women," he added.
Amelita Cabrera, assistant director for operations of the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Cordillera Administrative Region (DSWD-CAR), said in a separate interview that they helped pushed for the creation of MOVE organizations in different national line agencies.
"Men and women should be partners. It is no longer in every man's success there is a woman behind, but a woman beside, " Cabrera said.
She also said that with equality in the workplace, women can show their true potentials and be at their best.
She said that in rural areas, some women are unaware of or refuse to acknowledge their rights due to obsolete practices and beliefs that men are superior.
This situation is, however, slowly being addressed by various DSWD programs that tap families to ensure gender equality.
"Slowly we are getting to the time when rural women will speak up when their rights are violated, " Cabrera said. (PNA)
