Lighting the way for women

By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

While top politicians in the US and the Philippines are busy objectifying a woman, either “grabbing her by the pussy” or ogling her bare knees, eight Filipina trailblazers, meanwhile, have raised their voices above the noise to prove that they are more than just the sum of their (lady) parts. They are women with poise and purpose recognized in the recently concluded The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) which awards women who are catalysts and role models for change and development.

TOWNS has cited 158 empowered women since it started in 1974. The TOWN women go through a rigorous selection process and interviews from a pool of 60 plus other strong women in different fields. The women — who have to be between 21 and 45 years old — are chosen due to outstanding characteristics such as having a personality worthy of emulation, and possessing a “pioneering spirit” evident from their work and service.

The TOWNS awards night was scheduled for Nov. 17 at the Dusit Thani in Makati.

SALT AND WATER
This year, one of them is Aissa Alvarez Mijeno. If her name sounds familiar, you might have seen her share the same stage with two accomplished men: US President Barack Obama, and Alibaba founder Jack Ma, in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in November last year.

An engineer by profession who happens to have a heart for social entrepreneurship, Ms. Mijeno told ����ý during a presentation of the winners on Nov. 10, that her job knows no gender. She is the mind behind the saltwater-powered lamp, especially useful for far-flung areas in the Philippines which have no access to electricity. The lamp can give light for up to eight hours and can be used for four days straight without turning it off. To make it light up again, users just have to replenish the salt water. While an alloy component inside the lamp does deteriorate with time, it is replaceable for P100.

Together she and her younger brother Raf formed the start-up social enterprise called Sustainable Alternative Lighting Corporation (SALt Corp) in 2014. She said during the APEC talk that she wanted to “address the light inequality gap, first in the Philippines, by focusing on the people at the bottom of the pyramid.”

She added: “Today, there are 16 million individuals or four people per household without access to light whom we want to light up within the next five years.”

The APEC convention opened many doors for the lamp project. “We have secured a partnership with a local manufacturing company called EMS Components Assembly Inc. based in Biñan Technopark in Laguna,” she said.

Now, SALt is transitioning from low production (30 units/day) to mass production (500 units/day) and has plans of commercially selling the lamps at a price range of P700 to P1,000. Borrowing from the marketing strategy of Toms, a US shoe brand, they will donate one salt lamp to the needy for every purchase made.

To sustain the budding company and its advocacy, they will continue adding to their partners, which buy the lamps and then distribute them to communities like the Barangay Dibay on Calayan Island in Cagayan province.

Currently, they are working with local government units and private foundations like Illac Diaz’ Liter of Light, One Meralco Foundation, and Wyeth.

The start-up has filed a patent for its technology which is still pending. According to rules, the patent application will be published 18 months after filing, but Ms. Mijeno sees no problem with it.

“People can copy it [once published], but what is more important is we want to be sustainable — not to be rich, but to light up the Philippines.”

Her advice to those with creative and noble ideas:

“There are many scenarios. Do you want to quit your job to pursue your passion? Or do you want to juggle both? If you’re not really sure of your choice, you are not fuelled and motivated every day to pursue whatever that is. Think deeply if this is really what your heart wants, kahit gaano kahirap (no matter how hard).”

“Me, I have found my passion,” she said.

‘FARMING IS SEXY’
Dressed in high heels and a billowy skirt, Cherrie De Erit Atilano, a TOWNS awardee for social development, joked that it’s unusual for her to wear heels. A farmer and farming advocate, Ms. Atilano created the AGREA Agricultural System International Inc. in Marinduque, an agri-social enterprise that builds sustainable farming communities through fair trade practices and a focus on organic produce. She aims to make farming “cool, smart, sexy, and humane,” and encouraging the youth to make it their career option.

“This country will not prosper unless we believe and support the backbone of our economy, which is agriculture. We need to make our farmers’ lives better,” she said.

Her vision and mission is to create food security and sovereignty by encouraging sustainable organic agriculture and to “continue cultivating the [idea] that farming matters.”

THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM
Her Olympic journey started in Beijing in 2008 as a wild card entry. But Hidilyn Francisco Diaz, TOWNS awardee for sports, did not win any medals. She tried again in London in 2012, “but I scored zero,” she said. Four years later, she told herself she would come back better and stronger. She did, and she won a silver in the women’s 53-kg weightlifting division in this year’s Olympics, becoming the first Filipina to win an Olympic medal.

“If men can do, so can we,” Ms. Diaz said, who was introduced to weightlifting when she saw her cousins doing it.

A MATTER OF HONOR
Patricia Chanco Evangelista, the awardee for media, used to believe “that journalism was like a magic wand.” The “trauma” reporter and Rappler multi-media manager said she was taught that journalism magically stops “corruption, brutality, misogyny, and ineptitude.”

“You wave it over [like a wand] and wars will stop, policies will change — and people will be buried where they are supposed to be buried,” she said. “That was the arrogance of the youth.”

Yet, despite journalists today being called “corrupt” or “presstitutes,” she still believes that the art and act of journalism “is a matter of honor and it remains a public trust.”

As a trauma reporter, she gives faces to names and humanizes statistical reports.

“When a man, for example, is found suffocated with tape around his head under MacArthur Bridge, we think it is unimaginable. In this country today, and all over the world, many things are imaginable. Everything is now possible. So, my commitment is to bear witness. To make the public imagine what we see, because it is our job — not to change the world — but our job is to see, so that other people can see through us. And if we are good enough, if we tell the stories in most compelling way, things will change.”

‘ART CAN CHANGE LIVES’
She consumes much art and produces art in turn for the Philippines, “which makes me an art pusher,” said Luisa “Isa” Mercedes Paez Lorenzo, TOWNS awardee for arts.

As the founder of Silverlens gallery — the first photography gallery in Southeast Asia and the first Philippine gallery to show at the prestigious Art Basel in Switzerland — she produces 30 local shows a year and introduces 22 Filipino and South East Asian artists each year here and abroad.

“Art can change lives. It is a cultural marker of history, of pride, and of identity. We need art now, [but] not the art that we cannot afford, but the stuff that makes us better people. I encourage you to visit museums,” said Ms. Lorenzo, who was a doctor but opted not to practice because she fell in love with art.

INVESTING IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
Jocelle Batapa Sigue, the awardee for information and communications technology, has one dream: to decongest Metro Manila by showing that the countryside can offer jobs, too.

“Seventy percent of the jobs are in Metro Manila. [The genuine meaning of] inclusive growth is if we look beyond Metro Manila and urban cities, and believe in the potential of the countryside.”

As the co-founder, former president, and current trustee of the National ICT Confederation in the Philippines, she has led projects and campaigns on developing information and communications technology (ICT) in local government units. She said the goal is to generate one million ICT-related jobs in the countryside in the next six years.

THE ROSE AMONG THE THORNS 
In a work force dominated by men, Marissa Arlene Andres-Martinez, awardee for government service, is a force to be reckoned as a commissioned officer in the Philippine Navy.

“If you speak of the military, it is not only [about] guns or being strong,” said Ms. Martinez, who is one of the first female graduates of the Philippine Military Academy and is a former director of the Navy’s Fleet Warfare School. “It is having the heart to serve, and taking the path where you could do more and give more.”

In command of a Navy warship, she and her crew support the joint military operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Western Mindanao against the terrorists.

SHAPING MINDS THROUGH STORIES WE TELL
Lou Sabrina Saavedra Ongkiko, TOWNS awardee for education, has many credentials on her wall — she has post graduate diplomas from the University of Melbourne in Australia and the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore — and she chooses to give back by being a public school teacher.

“Para sa akin, ang pinakaambag ko bilang guro ay ang paghubog sa isip at puso ng kabataang Pilipino — hindi lang marunong sa kanilang propesyon, pero marunong din ng magandang asal (For me, my biggest contribution is to shape the minds and hearts of young Filipinos — that they are not only skillful in their profession, but also have good values),” said Ms. Ongkiko, a BS Biology graduate from the Ateneo de Manila University.

She said she represents the stories, struggles, and triumphs of 700,000 public teachers in the Philippines. She advocates for the empowerment of teachers, especially the women.