Being a Kakampink: A Counter-Narrative against Patriarchy

I have never been this invested in a national election before. I have been a registered voter in Cebu since 2009, but the last election I participated in was when the country had its first automated election in 2010. During the highly contentious 2016 election, I was in Baguio City, a province in the Northern region of the Philippines. I deliberately chose not to vote because it was costly to go home to the province. I also did not make an effort to inform myself about the provision of transferring my voter’s registration. I justified my actions by thinking that my vote would not make a difference and that the same set of trapos (traditional politicians) would eventually win.

Perhaps in 2016, there were more than 10 million of us who had this kind of political cynicism. However, the 263,473-vote-difference between Vice President Leni Robredo and Bongbong Marcos and the repercussions of giving power to tyrannical politicians debunk the statement “my vote does not matter.” Because it really matters.

And so for the May 2022 national election, I made a promise to myself that I would contribute and participate actively in it. On September 21, 2021, the 49th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law, I lined up at the COMELEC (Commission on Elections) from 5:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon to reactivate my registration. And after she expressed her intention to run for the presidency, I also made a commitment to actively campaign for Vice President Leni Robredo. We, her supporters, call ourselves Kakampinks, a term that combines the words kakampi which is a Filipino word for ally or supporter, and pink which is the color of her political campaign.

I wrote and published short essays about her, translated our Theology department's statement of endorsement for her from English to Cebuano (my native language), and joined outreach activities, house-to-house campaigns, and political sorties. I rallied for her not only because she is a woman but most importantly, we have witnessed her exemplary brand of leadership in her 6 years of being the country's Vice President.

From “Ayoko sa babae dahil mahina, magaling sa bahay pero hindi sa politika!” (I don't like women because they are weak. They are good with housework but not in politics.) to “Ayoko sa kanya dahil para siyang Amazona, palaban!” (I don't like her because she is fierce and feisty like a woman from the Amazon), the patriarchal society continues to play and create scripts downplaying women's gifts and roles. The perpetuation of oppressive gender stereotypes against women, particularly in leadership and political participation, is very evident. These biases have blocked so many women from claiming important spaces in society where they could have participated and contributed to its authentic development.

Philippine’s outgoing president, Rodrigo Duterte is known for his sexist and misogynistic language, perspective, and attitude. However, Leni Robredo, the outgoing Vice-President of the Philippines manifests a different brand of leadership, a feminist one. While emphasizing his womanness, Leni Robredo at the same defies patriarchal paradigms. Robredo’s tsinelas leadership or the accessible and people-centered brand of governance is similar to bell hooks’ feminist theory: from margins to the center. In her proclamation rally on February 8 in Naga City, Robredo said that with this tsinelas leadership, the margins of the society will be the new center.

This is not a political promise but a continuation and expansion of her Angat Buhay Program which was launched during the start of her stint as Vice President of the Philippines in 2016. The program aims to bring together the public and the private sectors to address the needs of families in the farthest and the poorest communities in the country, focusing on six key advocacy areas: food security and nutrition, universal healthcare, public education, rural development, housing and resettlement, and women empowerment. The program nurtures feminist values of active participation, sense of agency, and collaboration because the OVP believes that there is no single way to solve poverty in a community and so the office capacitates key sectors in the country through various modes of engagement.

Failing to win the presidential bid with 15 million votes against the 31 million gained by the son of the country's former dictator, Leni Robredo announced during her thanksgiving rally that the Angat Buhay program of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) will be turned into a non-government organization, channeling the strong wave of volunteerism beyond the 2022 elections. Despite the hurts and pains brought about by the results, this gives so much hope and strength to us who joined and supported the Pink Movement during the campaign. I, for one, will continue to contribute to the disruptive voices telling and amplifying counter-narratives against patriarchy in all its forms.