Eve, Monique to lead Manila’s ‘One Billion Rising’ on Feb. 14

Monique Wilson announced that Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and founder of One Billion Rising who will arrive and stay in the country for two weeks, will lead this year’s strikes all over major capital cities in the Philippines on Feb. 14, tentatively scheduled at the Rizal Park. It’s V-Day, the day for victory, vagina and Valentine’s!
From the global success of Eve’s The Vagina Monologues though the stagings of Monique in the Philippines since 2000, One Billion Rising, a global strike to end violence, has been a most amazing three years: One Billion Rising (2013), One Billion Rising for Justice (2014) and One Billion Rising: Revolution (2015).
One Billion Rising has changed social/political activism from red to pink, empty rhetoric to meaningful action, destructive to constructive.
Monique is at the forefront in the Philippines of this new kind of activism. With accumulated angst involved in meeting rape, abuse and maltreatment against women face to face, you’d think she would be an angry woman. Quite the opposite, she is a happy female, the impression she gave at the launch of One Billion Rising: Rise for Revolution 2016 at Café Romulo in Makati City.
“I’m full of rage,” she shared during a one-on-two interview with Pablo Tariman. She didn’t look like it as she looked so beautiful even if she is currently under treatment for blood cancer. Could the black she wore be a tell-tale sign of this depression? I failed to ask.
“It’s just I know how to handle it. When I met a raped Lumad, I was so angry I cried for three hours. I had to talk it out in a phone call (with a person close to me) to calm down,” she confided.
Monique was wearing a talaingod bead necklace given to her by a female Lumad chieftain, Bai Bibiyaon Ligcayin Bigcay, as a sign of the confidence she had earned from the oppressed cultural minority. The Lumads are suffering from repression by the military to protect the interests of foreign miners in their ancestral lands.

ESCALATING REVOLUTION. The One Billion Rising: Rise for Revolution 2016 shouts out:
“One Billion Rising: Rise for Revolution 2016 is an escalation of the first three stages of our campaign — One Billion Rising, One Billion Rising for Justice, and One Billion Rising: Revolution.
“We’ve danced. We’ve demanded justice. We’ve demanded changes.
“This year we are radicalizing our actions — enlarging, deepening and expanding the revolution.
“We need to continue to radically shift consciousness and be braver, bolder, more creative and determined with our actions.
“And we need to focus on the most marginalized women and girls to bring about true, long lasting change.
“Change can happen if…
“Grassroots movements and marginalized communities are in the lead.
“Change can happen if…
“We demand accountability – making sure our justice calls are realised.
“We will continue to demand justice, and we will continue to highlight the issues surrounding the social injustices inflicted on women, and to keep highlighting where these issues connect. We will continue to challenge institutions, governments, policies, laws — and make these systems, which are responsible for creating situations of poverty and violence, accountable.
“Change can happen if…
“We harness out creativity and energy
“We will keep highlighting, creating and envisioning new, brave and radical artistic initiatives to bring in the new revolutionary world of equality, dignity and freedom for all women and girls. There is nothing more powerful than art as a tool for transformation.
“Change can happen if…
“We Act Now.
“And We Act Together.
 “Why continue the call for Revolution?
Revolution can be expressed in the “for who” and “for what.” It is broad enough to include all issues, and also particular enough to be specific about issues communities want to highlight and raise. It does not diffuse focus, rather — it enhances it.
“The Revolution call helps sustain the focus of what One Billion Rising is – a call for Change. Structural, systemic, long term change.
“Systems have not changed yet, therefore the call for Revolution remains urgent and necessary, to deepen what it can mean, and escalate actions around it. Major changes are still needed, particularly in ways of thinking and consciousness about violence against women issues.
“Revolution allows creative and artistic expressions, multi-sectoral involvement, and more importantly —  provides a unique space to engage people from all walks of life. It allows the use of imagination, art and political actions — and allows everyone the freedom to localize all their campaigns.
“Above all Revolution can bring everyone from the personal to the political — from the “I” to the “We.” It harnesses collective energy because it is hopeful and envisions possibilities and a future.”
 
THE CALL FOR RISE FOR REVOLUTION 2016:
“Listen! Act! Rise!
“Amplify the Voices of Marginalized Women
“Bring National and International Focus to Their Issues
“Bring New Artistic Energy to Create This Possibility
“Raise Other Issues That Have Not Been as Visible
“Amplify Revolution as a Call for System Change
“Platform Voices That Have Not Been Heard Within Local Campaigns
“Call on People to Rise For Others
“Call Upon People of Privilege to Rise for Those Who are Not
“Create Synergy and Connection
“Continue to Call for State Accountability and Justice
“Keep Highlighting the Economic Context of Women
“Remain inclusive, intersectional and comprehensive
“Keep Connecting the Body with Revolution
Rise for Change and Equality.”

WEEKDAYS WOWOWIN TO TAKE DEAL OR NO DEAL TIMESLOT. Although still unannounced, Buzzstation projects that Willie Revillame’s daily game show, Wowowin, will take the 5 p.m. timeslot by Feb. 1. Is it going to air from the barangays? If it is,  ABS-CBS’s Deal or No Deal which doing Barangay Edition starting Jan. 25, 2016 had pre-empted Wowowin.