Women, Activism and Social Change: Stretching Boundaries by Maja Mikula

Author:Maja Mikula [Mikula, Maja]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415357388
Goodreads: 6961856
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

8

The militant nun as political activist and feminist in martial law Philippines

Mina Roces

The 1984 feature film Sister Stella L. had its main character, Sister Stella, say the activist slogan: ‘Kung hindi tayo kikilos, sino pa, kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa!’ [If we do not act, who will, if not now, when else!] (Reyes 1989). This slogan was one of the catchphrases of the activists of the 1970s. The fact that screenplay writer Jose Lacaba purposely gave these lines to the character who was a militant nun (not a priest or other activist) was testimony to the visibility of the militant nun as representative of opposition to the Marcos dictatorship. The plot of the movie involves a nun, Sister Stella Legaspi, who is initially politically indifferent, but who eventually becomes sensitized to the plight of the strikers during a labour dispute in a depressed area. Exposed to the miserable lives of the strikers, she joins them on the picket line, only to witness the military assault and murder of a labour leader. This experience strengthens her determination to fight against tyranny and oppression and she delivers that activist slogan at the climax of the film.

The fictionalized story of Sister Stella L. (played by film star Vilma Santos) depicted the militant nun’s metamorphosis into political activist. Nuns were in fact interviewed and consulted by director Mike de Leon in the making of the film, which contributed to the film’s relatively accurate representation of the militant nun in the martial law years (1972–86).1 It was the nuns’ exposure to the victims of martial law that inspired them to speak out for political detainees, support labour strikes, report on the abuses of the regime and later act as human barricades in the front lines that faced the military. But the nuns were not the only women political activists. There were many women who joined the Communist Party of the Philippines and their military arm, the New People’s Army (NPA). Women also filled the ranks of the Social Democrats, the terrorist group the April 6th Liberation Movement, human rights reformist groups and the traditional political oppositionists, including those who were in exile abroad. But these women remained marginalized in those groups, were denied leadership positions and in most cases given administrative or care-taking responsibilities, which reinforced traditional gender roles of women as secretaries, writers, nurses, cooks and mothers or child minders (Hilsdon 1995: 82). In contrast, the militant nuns, though still conforming to traditional gendered images of the woman as moral guardian, discovered that they had ‘moral power’. In this sense, they became much more effective than the women in other radical organizations. Not seen as wanting official power, but revered as moral guardians, these militant nuns became a successful pressure group. First Lady Mrs Imelda Romualdez Marcos, for instance, invited Sister Christine Tan to Malacañang four times for ‘discussions’ (perhaps to win the nuns over), the invitation itself evidence of the potential clout of moral power (ibid.). Sister Christine was later invited by no less than President Corazon Aquino to be a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1986.

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