Seventy meters from where two female city councilors of Victorias City in Negros Occidental, were making speeches about women empowerment, this cold, dusty pavement in the northern part of the public plaza provided a homeless woman some comfort as she sat under the shade of a building set up by the local government that was supposed to look after everyone's welfare, voter or not.
She sat motionless as if lost in her own world oblivious to the noise and movements around her, which might have served her well because, in those moments, the other women from 26 barangays, as captive audience of those councilors, had no choice but to listen to their speeches at the center of the public plaza and be bombarded with big words like 'empowerment' and 'empowered women'.
Yes, give a politician a microphone and all you would hear are just like that: big words.
Those words reverberated around the Victorias public plaza carried by sound waves blasting from the giant loudspeakers that were rented, not just to spread music, but throw at the different directions the noise of politicians prattling. And as taxpayers' money is being used to pay for those loudspeakers, our money is being used for their own political propaganda.
I was just walking through the plaza on my way to the public market when I saw her on the path where I passed.
This was ironic, I told myself.
The people who were being talked about in the speeches are the same people ignored. But this is reality: those 'big words' should have been followed by 'big actions', but that would be a stretch because, in our city, what we always hear from the officials are promises which immediately evaporate into thin air along with the saliva they spray.
I corrected myself. This wasn't irony; this was hypocrisy.
It is when the people who are in position and have the power to lift everyone up seemed to conveniently include only those they can politically exploit. This homeless woman, I doubt, is one of those they can manipulate for a vote.
So, on this celebration of National Women's Month, who are the ones chosen to be empowered and the ones chosen to be left behind? ðŸ˜
#nationalwomensmonth #womensmonth #CSWD #DSWD #sangguniangpanglungsod #victoriascity #negrosoccidental #philippines #homeless
