THERE HAS been, however, at least one female legislator outside of party-list groups with women’s rights advocacies who was very vocal about her pro-women stance: Leticia Ramos Shahani. She and Santanina Rasul became the first female senators in the post-Marcos Congress. Says Shahani: “Once elected, I asked myself, for whom do I legislate and what do I legislate? I had no doubt that I had to legislate for women because I correctly felt that I represented them.”

She does clarify that “a senator cannot just be a class legislator,” and that she was not just “a senator for women.” She stresses, however, that she never forgot that women's issues were her priority.

In fact, the first bill that Shahani authored and that was made into law was RA 6725, which sought to strengthen the prohibition on discrimination against women in the workplace. She is also proud of having introduced during the debate on the national budget in 1994 the mandatory allocation of five percent of the budget of every government department and agency for gender and development. But she considers the two laws on rape — RA 8353, which redefined the crime, and RA 8505, which provides assistance to rape victims and their families — as the centerpieces of her “feminist legislation.”

Rasul, meanwhile, seemed to have been also busy with women’s issues in the Upper House. Once the chair of the Committee on Women and Family Relations in the Senate, she co-authored the Women in Development and Nation-Building Act of 1995 (RA 7192) with Senator Roco. The Act outlawed discrimination against women, opened the doors of the Philippine Military Academy to women, and mandated that a substantial portion of government funds at all levels be used for programs that would benefit and develop women’s capabilities.

Rasul also sponsored RA 6949, which declared March 8 of every year as National Women’s Day, a special working holiday, as well as RA 6955. And she is credited for having provided funds for the UPCWS building, seeking the help of her fellow senators when the center’s coffers were nearly empty.

Congress observers say few women in the Lower House seem to have matched Shahani and Rasul’s pro-women legislative efforts. One of the exceptions, they say, was Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, who was the representative of the lone district of Aurora from the 10th to the 12th Congresses. Angara-Castillo, now Aurora’s governor, was a strong advocate not only of women’s rights, but also that of gays and lesbians during her stint in Congress.

Observers agree with women’s-issues activists that female representatives oftentimes choose to be “silent” because of their lack of skills to defend bills on the floor. UPCWS’s Sobritchea also points out that women elected to Congress have “different profiles, from the most conservative to the most progressive,” and therefore will not necessarily act as one, even when it comes to laws considered by many to be in support of women’s rights.

Sobritchea remarks as well that many of today’s female legislators are “conservative.” She says that some, for instance, still believe that “no matter what has been done — you die, you are poisoned inside the house — marriage is inviolable and men and women should suffer in a very unhappy marriage.”

IN TRUTH, several female legislators ended up in their seats primarily because they belong to political families, and not because they were seen as potential supporters of women’s causes. In the current Congress, 20 of the female representatives (or 40 percent of the women legislators) directly inherited a parent/-in-law’s slot (three) or are replacements of husbands (14) or brothers (three). (see Tables 3, 4, and 5)

Table 3: Women Legislators Who Succeeded Husbands in Office
REPRESENTATIVE	DISTRICT	REPLACED HUSBAND
Apostol, Trinidad G.	Leyte, 2nd District	Apostol, Sergio
Cayetano, Ma. Laarni L.	Taguig City-Pateros, 1st District	Cayetano, Alan Peter S.
Clarete, Marina P.	Misamis Occidental, 1st District	Clarete, Ernie D.
Ponce Enrile, Sally S.	Cagayan, 1st District	Ponce Enrile, Juan Jr. C.
Prieto-Teodoro, Monica Louise	Tarlac, 1st District	Teodoro, Gilberto Jr. C.
Ramiro, Herminia M.	Misamis Occidental, 3rd District	Ramiro, Hilarion
Silverio, Lorna C.	Bulacan, 3rd District	Silverio, Ricardo
Rodriguez-Zaldarriaga, Adelina	Rizal, 2nd District	Rodriguez, Isidro Jr. S.
Roman, Herminia B.	Bataan, 1st District	Roman, Antonino P.
Sy-Alvarado, Ma. Victoria R.	Bulacan, 1st District	Sy-Alvarado, Wilhelmino M.
Syjuco, Judy	Iloilo, 2nd District	Syjuco, Augusto
Umali, Czarina D.	Nueva Ecija, 3rd District	Umali, Oyie
Villar, Cynthia A.	Las Piñas City, Lone District	Villar, Manuel
Villarosa, Ma. Amelita C.	Occidental Mindoro, Lone District	Villarosa, Jose

Table 4: Women Legislators Who Succeeded Siblings in Office
REPRESENTATIVE	DISTRICT	REPLACED SIBLING
Bondoc, Anna York P.	Pampanga, 4th District	Juan Pablo Bondoc
Jalosjos-Carreon, Cecilia G.	Zamboanga del Norte, 1st District	Romeo Jalosjos
Seachon-Lanete, Rizalina	Masbate, 3rd District	Fausto Seachon Jr.

Table 5: Women Legislators Who Succeeded Parents/In-laws in Office
REPRESENTATIVE	DISTRICT	REPLACED PARENT/IN-LAW
Antonino-Custodio, Darlene R.	South Cotabato, 1st District	Luwalhati Antonino (Mother)
Ermita-Buhain, Eileen	Batangas, 1st District	Eduardo Ermita (Father)
Garin, Janette L.	Iloilo, 1st District	Oscar Garin (Father-in-law)

Then there are Representatives Thelma Almario of the 2nd district of Davao Oriental who had served successively in the Eighth, Ninth, and 10th Congresses, and was replaced by her son Mayo Almario, who served in the 11th, 12th, and 13th Congresses; and Carmencita Reyes of the lone district of Marinduque who had served in the Eighth, Ninth, and 10th Congresses, and was promptly replaced by her son Edmundo Reyes Jr. in the 11th, 12th, and 13th Congresses. Both Almario and Reyes have now replaced their sons, who had reached their term limits. Representative Carmen Cari of the 5th district of Leyte, meanwhile, replaced her niece Representative Ma. Catalina Loreto-Go, who served in the 11th Congress.

The newest deputy speaker of the House, Occidental Mindoro Representative Amelita Villarosa, herself took the seat vacated by her husband Jose several years ago. But when she was named deputy speaker, no less than Speaker Jose De Venecia said that Villarosa was chosen “to address the gender imbalance in the House, so that women legislators will be represented in the House leadership.” Villarosa, though, has since taken pains to explain that “I was elected as a deputy speaker, period, not a deputy speaker for women. There is no such position in the House.”

“The job of the deputy speaker is to help the speaker carry out the functions of his office,” she adds. “I am deputy speaker for everyone, not just for a particular sector.”

At the very least, Villarosa is not known for women’s causes. Of the 57 house bills she filed during her previous term, only one could be described as being pro-women: House Bill 4948, which seeks to expand the grounds for legal separation and to amend the definition of psychological incapacity under the Family Code.