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FLUX AND FLOWS OF PEOPLE, POWER AND PRACTICES: ISSUES RELATING TO SOCIAL JUSTICE227political participation of women in government and inrecognition of the need to provide support for womenpoliticians. Since then, AFER has been active inpushing for 40 percent women’s participation, apartfrom voicing out issues pertaining to women. In theeffort to ensure women’s representation in allconstituencies, AFER also launched a campaign toeliminate the Zero-Women Representatives Assemblyby tracking and lobbying in the constituencies withoutany woman representative. Mitsui Mariko, one of thefounders of AFER, is a former Tokyo MetropolitanCity Councilor. When she was in that position, shecampaigned for the enactment of the SexualHarassment Act in the Metropolitan Tokyogovernment. The act has since been expanded to otherparts of Japan.The Political Participation of Women in thePhilippinesMy research period in the Philippines lasted threemonths, from February to May 2011. I arrived earlyFebruary 2011, and upon the recommendation of ProfMike Luz of the Asian Institute of Management(AIM) and contacts from women NGOs, I took aninterest in the heated debate on the ReproductiveHealth (RH) Bill, then being discussed in Congress.The bill aims to provide women with family planningfacilities and services, to empower them and reduce thealarming maternity mortality rate. The RH Bill isstrongly supported by the women’s movements andNGOs; but the Catholic Church is against it.Unlike Japan, which is showing a trend toward a twopartysystem, the number of parties in the Philippinesis fluid, with parties being formed, merged, anddissolved so frequently that party loyalty is hardlypracticed. Even though the number of womenpoliticians in the Philippines is higher than in Japan,most women politicians are usually from a politicaldynasty that enjoys a high societal or elite status butmay not necessarily represent women’s rights.In the Philippines, the national elections are for thePresident, the Senate and the House ofRepresentatives (Congress). At the local level, there areelections for the provincial, city, municipal, andbarangay levels.Brief Profile of Selected Women Politicians in thePhilippines• Leticia Shahani, former Senator (1987-1998). In1975, as a member of the Commission of theStatus of Women, Leticia R. Shahani preparedthe working draft of the CEDAW based on theUN Declaration. She was Secretary-General ofthe World Conference on the UN Decade ofWomen in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985.• Nieves Confessor, former Secretary of Labor andEmployment, the first female to hold theposition. She was also the first Asian woman toserve as Chairperson of the International LaborOrganization Governing Body (ILO).• Risa Hontiveros, former congress representativeand one of the founders of Akbayan (see point 3in “Routes to Politics” below). She is a strongadvocate of the RH Bill and Lesbians, Gays,Bisexuals, and Transsexuals (LGBT) rights. Sheran for Senator in 2010 as a guest candidate ofthe Liberal Party, the party of President BenignoAquino III, but lost.• Raida Bansil, who was appointed ascommissioner of the National Congress ofMuslim Filipino (NCMF) after completingthree terms as mayor of Kapatagan. She rebuiltKapatagan from ashes and was succeeded by herhusband as mayor in 2010.• Janette Garin, Congress Representative of the 1 stdistrict of Iloilo. After succeeding her husband,who is from a political family, she has since wonthree consecutive terms. She is an advocate ofthe RH Bill.• Perla Zulueta, city councilor of Iloilo city. She isthe only female in the council.Routes to Politics1. Political Clan or Kinship PoliticsIn the Philippines, one’s political clan and family nameplay an important role in politics. According toCEDAW Watch Philippines 2009, a study conductedby the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism(PCIJ) showed that most of the women in the Houseof Representative in 2001 were from political clans(UNIFEM 2009). The national politics of thePhilippines is deeply entrenched in kinship politics.Filipino feminist scholar, Mina Roces (1998, 2)pointed out that “While men held official power,women held power unofficially as wives, sisters,mothers, daughters, and even mistresses of malepoliticians”.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows