Dear OTHER WOMAN,

• 

Some days ago, you came into the properties we managed and refused to pay our entrance fees.

“Bakit ako magbabayad? Anong minemaintain nyo dito?”
“Araw-araw nyo ba itong nililinis, inaayos?”
“Bigyan ko nalang kayo ng flysite. Mas malaki pa jan.”

These are your words, with your eyebrows raised higher than the heavens. You refused to listen to any of our explanations. In the end, I offered to pay for you and your group. Before you left, without really paying for anything, you called someone and “reported” me to who knows who. “She does not know how to handle guests.”

Dear OTHER WOMAN,

I know if someone is sincerely clueless or just plain offensive. I know when to draw the line. I am DOT-trained in the Philippines with the Filipino brand of excellence. More than that, I am internationally-trained to handle people like you. My years in the UAE, working for its flag carrier, have taught me to have a high alert on terrorists, abusers, people who discriminate and those who violate human rights. I have worked with almost all nationalities around the world. I have seen the best and the worst of them.

Every experience is a two-way process. Respect begets respect. My question is, did it give you joy to act this way around other women? In a world where men are lording their powers over us, is it not best to join hands and lift each other up? With all the injustices around us, are we, women, not called to empower one another?

Dear OTHER WOMAN,

With your actions that day, you have shown the younger generation that was watching you, that we Filipino women do not understand empowerment at all.

I am a woman trying to establish a passion-project that would help develop a community. Our girl-volunteers are young people giving their best to improve their own town. The food providers are ladies, working from dawn ‘till dusk to serve and provide.

Dear OTHER WOMAN,

I have been through so many abuses in my life – from sexual, to physical, to mental. I have shot each of them with trembling fingers, one monster at a time. I am raising my voice so that those without a voice can be heard. “We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”

Dear OTHER WOMAN,
You are holding us back. You have a gun in your hand, either you shoot AT US, or you shoot WITH US. Pick your fight, but remember, the real battlefield is inside your heart.