TEASED about being named one of two Filipinas (the other being Sister Mary John Mananzan) on the “One Hundred Inspiring People” list of the global organization Women Deliver, Representative Janette Garin of the first district of Iloilo says she aspires to be named one of the “One Hundred Sexiest People” in the world next.
“There’s still time,” I say, laughing. But asked what it would take to win this next “title,” Garin says with a naughty grin: “Political will.”
About a fourth of the people on the “Inspiring” list, notes Garin, are men, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, cited for their support for women’s rights. This in spite of the fact that Women Deliver is an international coalition of women’s and health groups working to lower maternal mortality rates across the world and in general encourage governments to “invest in women.” But the recognition of men champions, points out Garin, is meant not just to send the message that men’s contributions to the survival of women are important, but also that not all women politicians riding the bandwagon of women’s rights are truly committed to the “cause.”
The Iloilo congresswoman is proud of the citation from Women Deliver, which notes that she has worked for the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill “without so much fanfare” and that she has “not been afraid to speak the truth in a predominantly Catholic country.”
Some might pooh-pooh the threat presented by the Catholic bishops and their supporters. But for politicians supportive of the RH Bill and campaigning for votes in provinces where the media – and thus awareness about sexual and reproductive rights and health – are not as pervasive, the Church can be a formidable influence.
Garin is well aware of this influence wielded by an institution that rivals only the government in terms of authority and credibility. Running for re-election to the Iloilo provincial board in 1998, she became a target of “faith-based” groups, particularly one outspoken Catholic priest who disapproved of her views on family planning and same-sex marriage. “It came to a point that a radio station began pitting us against each other, like in a boxing match, and keeping score.” It was then, says Garin, that she discovered the secret to dealing with detractors. “I decided I should speak up and speak from the heart, to say what I really believe in,” she says, and found that sincerity – and bravery – clicked with listeners and voters.
In her first campaign for a House seat, prevailed upon by her in-laws who were a local political family, Garin became an even more “attractive” target of conservatives. Most Sundays, she would be mentioned by name in petitions during the Mass, with congregations urged to “pray” for her that she change her “harmful” views, particularly on abortion and euthanasia. She admits to being “hurt” at the time, “Nakakapagod, masakit talaga (so exhausting, and really hurtful). But it boomeranged on them,” Garin notes. “Since they were using it as an issue against me, I began to use my campaign sorties as a chance to refute their accusations point by point. I was getting free air time on local radio, and I found out that even humble folk were willing to listen and understand if you took the time to explain to them.”
Church folk were gearing up to duke it out with her in last year’s elections, since by this time she had gained national prominence as one of the authors of the RH Bill. “Pro-life groups were moving heaven and earth against me,” she recalls. But by some strange political alchemy, Garin ended up running unopposed and won an easy victory.
Not that she has been entirely unopposed within her own family. Her mother Asuncion, described by Garin as “very religious, very active in Church affairs and a major contributor to Church projects” in their home province of Leyte, has more than once remonstrated with her to “listen to the bishops and give the priests a chance.” But over the years, says the congresswoman, “I have managed to convince her to look at reproductive health as not just a religious and moral issue but also as a poverty and development issue.” They have since come to a modus vivendi: “She is still conservative in her values, but she says she understands my position and my advocacy.”
Garin herself is a product of a convent school in Leyte, but sees no contradiction between her religious upbringing and her present advocacy. Her own daughter and only child is 13 and goes to a private school for girls in Manila. “But I am confident of her support for my beliefs,” says the congresswoman. “While I was practicing, I would bring her with me on my rounds and medical missions. She saw for herself the conditions of the poor women. So she knows what it is I am talking about.”
In an earlier interview, I had asked Garin how she came upon this advocacy, which she says she had adopted even before she entered national politics. As a doctor in Leyte and then in Iloilo, Garin would go on rounds in private and public hospitals and meet “so many women with unplanned pregnancies that drive them to get abortions.” From the women’s stories, Garin realized that “they cannot go for pre-natal services because no one would take care of their children. You end up getting angry at the patient simply because you want them to comply with the medications and go for the necessary tests, because if they don’t they end up in the ER, where they end up dying.”
On her days off, recalls Garin, she would organize medical missions (she was already a board member then) with special focus on mothers and children. “But I realized that whatever I do is useless because the [number of] children are just increasing and increasing.”
Thus her authorship of an early version of the RH Bill, believing, she says, that the national government needs to get involved in the procurement and distribution of contraceptive supplies, to rationalize the pricing of commodities, “because if you leave it up to the local governments to set their targets, the danger of corruption creeps in.”
In the effort to pass a bill addressing reproductive health and responsible parenthood concerns, Garin has become one of the more outspoken advocates in the House. Much of the attention, it is true, is focused on Representative Edcel Lagman, who has led the long-term campaign for the RH Bill. But today, political alignments have assigned Lagman the role of Minority Floor Leader, which means he has become a major critic of P-Noy (Benigno Aquino III) and the Aquino administration. Garin, meanwhile, is senior Deputy Majority Leader, shepherding representatives basically supportive of the President in pursuit of the Aquino government’s legislative agenda. This makes for a decidedly awkward situation, at best.
Aggravating the situation is that a small group of lawmakers, including party-list representatives of Buhay which campaigned on a “pro-life” platform, are devoting all of their waking moments (it seems, says Garin) to defeating the RH Bill. “I have been pleading with Manong Edcel to cut down on his broadsides against the President,” says Garin, “explaining to him that while he and I are both very busy with our other work in the House, this group of oppositionists are doing nothing but spreading disinformation to our colleagues.”
Garin acknowledges that the RH Bill is suffering some “softening” of support even among the 120 co-authors, some of whom have succumbed to the “false propaganda” being spread by those dead-set against the passage of the RH Bill. Certainly, the pressure being brought to bear on them by the local bishops, priests and conservative religious groups cannot be discounted. “I believe our legislators are intelligent enough to read the bill and reach their own conclusions,” she declares. She hopes that the oppositors will give up their delaying tactics and at least allow for a debate on the floor and for the representatives to vote on it. For now, says Garin, they have set their sights on the bill passing the House vote before the yearend.
Garin was just in her second year of medical residency when she joined the provincial board of Leyte, her first political outing. But as her political career took off, she found less and less time to pursue her medical career. Still, right in the thicket of pushing the RH Bill in the 14th Congress, Garin decided to pursue an MBA in Health Administration from the Ateneo. Barring completion of her dissertation defense, she is set to add the title of MBA to her collection of achievements.
Somehow, the “title” of “Sexiest Person in the World” doesn’t seem so out of reach for this doctor-legislator. If only she could find the political will… •
