By Fernando Cabigao Jr.
IT WAS 78 years ago when Filipino women first gained the right to vote and to run for public office. That happened on April 30, 1937.
But Filipino men of some education and property had claimed that right 30 years earlier in 1907.
Act 1582 became the first legislation on elections enacted by the Philippine Commission during the American occupation period. It allowed male citizens 23 years or older and of legal residence the right to vote.
Yet still, to qualify as a voter, Filipino males must have held a government position before Aug. 13, 1898; own real property worth P500 or pay P30 of established taxes a year; and able to speak, read, and write in English or Spanish. Act 1582 took effect on Jan. 15, 1907.
During the Commonwealth period, the 1935 Constitution stated that only Filipino men who are 21 years or older and are not disqualified by law can vote. They must also be able to read and write, and resided for a year in the Philippines, and for at least six months in the municipality where they are voting, before election day.
On April 30, 1937, the right of suffrage was extended to Filipino women, after 447,725 of them voted for it in a special plebiscite.
Article V of the 1935 Constitution that limited the right to vote to men set a condition that suffrage may also be extended to Filipino women if 300,000 of them will vote in favor of the motion in a special plebiscite to be held within two years after the adoption of the Constitution.
The general elections held on Dec. 14, 1937 became the first balloting in the country in which Filipino women were allowed to vote and run for public office. Subsequent elections saw many Filipino women winning in various local positions across the nation.
Among the notable ones were Carmen Planas (City Councilor, Manila in 1937 and 1941), Elisa Ochoa (first woman member of Congress, 1941), and Geronima Pecson (first woman senator, 1947).
In the May 2013 elections, female voters had already outnumbered male voters – there were 893,418 more women than male voters out of the 50,896,164 total registered voters in the country that year.
But in terms of the number of candidates who ran, the women still represented a minority in the last elections.
Of the 44,448 candidates, only 18 percent or 7,921 were women. Of the 33 candidates for senator, only eight were women.
Too, of the 630 candidates who made a bid for the 234 slots for district representatives, only one in six or 125 were women. - PCIJ, March 2015
References:
* Aning, Jerome. “Women mark anniversary of right to vote.”
* Official Gazette. “The 1935 Constitution.”
* Official Gazette. “Women in government.”
* Official Gazette. “Statement: The Deputy Presidential Spokesperson on the 76th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in the Philippines.”
* Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. “Benchwarmers or True Leaders? Women candidates a puny minority in nat’l, local races.”
* PhilippineLaw.info. “Act No. 1582, Election Law.”
* PhilippineLaw.info. “C.A. No. 34, An Act to Provide for the Holding of a Plebiscite on the Question of Woman Suffrage.”
* Presidential Museum and Library. “1937 Plebiscite.”
