SEOUL, 4 July 2014 – Filipino gender equality advocates, led by the representative of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in South Korea, conferred with counterparts from Asia and Africa in a robust showing at the 6th Ehwa Global Empowerment Program (EGEP) Open Forum at Ehwa Womans University on 3-4 July 2014.

“Listening to the different speakers, I learned that combined efforts from the Philippines, from both the government and NGO sectors working on women and development, are strongly aligned with international treaties and conventions for women,” said the Embassy of the Philippines’ Social Welfare Attaché Lucita J. Villanueva.

This summer’s iteration of the biannual forum at Ehwa’s LG Convention Hall took the theme “Visioning Feminist Alternatives for a Better World: Stories of Women Activists in Asia and Africa”. It was attended by officials of the embassies of Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and the U.S., reflecting the origins of the speakers.

There were two speakers from the Philippines. Melanie Marcelo Reyes, program coordinator for the Women Gender Institute at Miriam College, spoke on the first day about contemporary Filipino young women’s struggles toward female empowerment in Session 3: Women’s Empowerment and Leadership.

Sara Jane Arcos Biton, program staff of the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, gave a presentation at the fourth session on sexuality and reproductive health on the second day about the chilling reality of back-street abortions in the Philippines.

The Philippines, which was also represented by Filipino spouses of Korean men as well as a Roman Catholic priest engaged in women’s issues in Ansan, a city in Gyeonggi Province with the highest concentration of foreign migrant workers in Korea, had the most number of participants after the hosts – a reflection of the country’s engagement in women’s issues.

“In terms of qualification and number of applicants and participants, the Philippines has been in the lead since the first EGEP in January 2012,” said Dr. Aileen Cabigan-Park, a research fellow at Ehwa Womans University, who originally hails from Agusan del Sur on the Philippines’ second largest island of Mindanao.

The Philippines ranks fifth in gender equality among 200 countries in the world, according to the 2013 Global Gender Gap Report released by the World Economic Forum in October 2013. The Philippines is also Asia’s highest-ranking country.

Reyes also lauded the Embassy’s participation in the Open Forum, which showed the Philippine government is “interested and is willing to listen to our issues, the social problems of our country”. Meeting officials like Villanueva, she said, was a strategic way to connect with people working at ground level not just on women’s rights but also on migrant issues.

“In the Open Forum, the participation of the Philippine Embassy has been consistently lauded since the 4th EGEP both by the EGEP organizers and EGEP participants from the Philippines,” confirmed Dr. Park, who has helped organize the Open Forum as well as the two-week EGEP itself, which is themed "Transnational Feminisms and Women's Activism".

At the EGEP, which ran from 29 June to 13 July, Sylvia Estrada Claudio, professor at the Department of Women and Development Studies, College of Social Work and Community at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, gave a lecture on "Transnational Feminism and Movement Building".

Among the Filipino participants were Fr. Jun D. Perez, SVD of Galilea Migrant Workers Pastoral Center in Ansan City, and Filipino women married to Koreans, Venus Avelino Lee- President of Seoul Filipino Parents and Children Organization, Teri Rose Dominica Gannaban Roh, Noreen Ann Lindo, and Rosevi Mojica Sung.