Akiko Miyake-Stoner on Women's Voices from the Philippines

"Voices from the Philippines" was a public event of the WGS Sixth Annual International Meeting, "Women Resisting Militarism and Creating a Culture of Life," sponsored by Women for Genuine Security and PANA Institute’s Civil Liberty and Faith Project. This meeting brought together internationally recognized women activists from South Korea, Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawai'i and the US to build and sustain a network of women, and to promote, model, and protect genuine security in the face of militarism.

PSR student Akiko Miyake-Stoner reflects:

Looking back to my journal entry written after the program with the Filipino women against US militarism, I remember how affected I was by the power of these women. The journey through poverty, humiliation, disrespect, and loss that they have experienced was a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit for me. To have such spirited dedication and empowered commitment in the looming presence of the US military inspires me.

One thing I was really struck by was the plight of Amerasians in the Philippines. One woman shared her story of falling in love with an US serviceman who led her to believe he was in love with her, too. While he was stationed in the Philippines, they developed a relationship, writing love letters and seeing each other periodically. Soon after she discovered she was pregnant, he confessed to her that he was married.

This woman shared the bittersweet pain she had when she gave birth to a girl, her Amerasian child. She told us how she struggled to provide for her daughter, but her earnings were not enough. Wanting the best for her daughter, her last resort was to send her girl to live with her father, the US serviceman; she hoped that by giving her up that her daughter would be given adequate food, shelter, and education. It turns out that the US serviceman’s wife was verbally and psychologically abusive to the girl and would not allow her to be in touch with her mother. Ultimately, this Amerasian daughter did not have a home in either the United States or the Philippines because of the stigma attached to her situation. This struck a personal chord for me, coming from a Japanese and German American background. Although I have experienced the bewilderment and confusion of not fitting in with either the Japanese or Euro-American communities, I cannot imagine the pain and self-identity crises of the children of Asian women working in prostitution and US servicemen.

When I left that evening, I felt both very disheartened and complacent, but also so uplifted by the open spirits of the women. There was a powerful gift in the embrace that happened with the sharing of stories; we engaged each others’ humanity as we were present in telling and receiving tales of our pain and empowerment. They implanted in me a subtle sense of freedom: freedom to see beyond my limited ideas of what I think is possible (for me and for the world) as well as a freedom to grow and learn as a fellow world citizen. Ultimately, the memory of this strong group of educators and leaders I encountered that night continues to invite me to be more human as I keep learning about US militarism and other issues that affect people around the world, as well as grow into the potential with which God has created me.

I was struck by the women’s willingness to share their stories, inviting me to be more human as I learned about their stories. To make a change where they can. To meet people one at a time and build relationships with people.

Akiko Miyake-Stoner began her Master of Divinity studies at Pacific School of Religion in the fall of 2007.

Sister Song

By Colleen “Coke” Tani Nakamoto, September 15, 2007. Dedicated to the WGS women of the 6th International Gathering, “Women Resisting Militarism and Creating a Culture of Life,” San Francisco, CA.

Sister Song

My Dear Sisters—

Your stories, information, creativity and actions have blessed me in places I didn’t know I could feel blessed.
Where in my body can I hold such fierce love?
How can I possibly respond?

The American in me says, By Stepping Back.
My Okinawan and Japanese blood says, By Stepping Forth.
So I step forward, and I step back.
It’s often an invisible and clumsy dance, but one I am determined to learn.
Inside my body, puzzle pieces collide & repel—
You are this. No, you are this. No, you are this!

Say I have two roots. Say my left foot is rooted in Okinawa. Say my left foot is what I inherited from my mother, and from hers, and hers.

Say my right foot is rooted in Japan. Say my right foot is what I inherited from my father, and from his, and his.

Say from the outset, born in America, my left and my right were planted in hopeful but stolen soil, watered from a poisoned well.
Say the sky-birds came and stole my tongue when I was sleeping.
How I ache to be able to talk with you.

Step forward.
Step back.

Say my left foot became fractured when my Okinawan grandparents became plantation workers in Pu’ukolii, Maui. Say my left leg became weak when Pioneer Sugar Mill displaced Kanaka Maoli and overran the land. Say my left arm became crooked when the plantation paid wages scaled by skin and race, Portuguese and other Europeans at the top, followed by Japanese, then Okinawan, then Filipino then Hawaiian. Say my left arm broke when my grandpa beat my grandma, confused by his own dislocation. Say one day, thirty years later, I was born, simply, “Sansei.” Say “Japanese-American.” Say, What’s missing? Say, “Grandma?” My left side buckles.

Say my right leg became deformed when Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan, and fed the pre-existing hatred toward Japanese-Americans. Say my right foot grew infected even before this, when Pearl Harbor was claimed as a base. Say my right leg cried, when the fish and flora died. Say my right leg still cries for the baby shark met, saved by Summer & Auntie Terry—the baby shark who can no longer thrive there. Say its wide open mouth is like my own, desperate, derailed and displaced by a desecrated Pearl Harbor, and the bomb that blew up the dreams of my people. Say Poston Internment Camp. Say countless places on earth are shattered, villages burned, men believing they are gods.

Step forward.
Step back.

Step forward—
Now say Shellmound, ancestors, recognition. Say ‘ike.
Say Waikiki, Ala Moana, Mokapu.
Now Say Richmond, Say military-industrial complex. Say oil. Say fenceline.
Say Chevron, Say Hanjin, Say Halleburton.
Say asthma, cancer, Say Down’s Syndrome,
Say my granddaughter has a hole in her heart.
Now Say Bayview. Say it’s safe to eat ¼ of ¼ of ¼ of 1 fish.
Say Parcel B, Say Parcel E1, E2,
Say mercury, asbestos, say arsenic.
Now Say Nicole. Say VFA. Say Subic Bay. Say “Commercial Gateway.” Say Extra-
Judicial Killings. Say Military Sexual Terrorism.
Say poverty, say child labor, say exported labor, say trafficking.
Say, They come back “dead or mentally broken.”
Say Where Is Smith?
Now Say Pyeoungtaek Village. Say 3rd expulsion.
Say National Flag Act. Say Military Culture, and Military Camptowns.
Say with Dohee Lee—I had a dream there was a woman standing still, she was trying
to say something but I couldn’t understand…
Say, “Feminist activism is not based on spectacle.”
Say, “My Sister’s Place.”
Say, “onni.”

Step forward—
Now Say, “DMZ Hawai’i.- Say Aloha ‘Aina.” Say Clean Up, Not Build Up.
Say Land Grab. Say Stryker.
Say 1898. Say Makua. Say Pohakuloa. Say UARC.
Say Kumulipo. Say Sovereignty.
Now Say Baguanamay—Say Doña Maria.
Say Aldonza Angoleña, Luisa Capetillo, Antonia Martinez Lagares
Say Zaida, Say Liza, Say Mitzie.
Say Vieques.
Say non-war toys for Luisito!
Say Centro Mujer y Nueva Familia.
Say ilé! Consciousness-in-Action!

Step forward.

Now Say Guahan. Say matrilineal society!
Say hydrogen and atomic bomb testing.
Say downwind. Say air and water currents. Say radiation off the Geiger counter.
Say decontamination and Marine relocation.
Say Chamorro Self-Determination.
Now Say, Keystone of the Pacific. Say 62 years. Say Henoko Bay, Say Dugong.
Say deployment.
Say sexual violence and supposed readiness for military combat.
Say war crimes.
Say coral.

Step forward.

Say, We must recover what was inside of us.
Say, It must be about Resistance PLUS Healing.
Say, Ancestors, Say Spirit.
Say, Mentor.
Say, Unai Festival, and Unai Method.
Say Use Hawai’i media.
Say Peace Guides.
Say Prayers.
Say Good Luck Charm.
Say We Define and Love Our Own Ways of Resistance.

Step forward.

Say, Sister. No, Sing it.
Sing Sister-Who-Restores-My-Whole-Body
Left to Right, Root to Crown
Puzzle pieces sewn together with the thread of an insistent, awakened Love—
The map is the map of Sisterhood, and the treasures are Restoration, Self-Deterimination
and Peace.
Sing Okinawan Sister, Ohlone Sister! Sing Puerto Rican Sister, African American Sister! Sing Korean Sister, Chamorro Sister, Shoshone Sister, Kanaka Maoli Sister, Filipina Sister, Mexicana Sister, Xicana Sister, Japanese Sister, Vietnamese Sister, Cambodian Sister, Salvadorean Sister, Chinese Sister, Nicaraguan Sister, American Sister.
Sing Infinite Sisters.

Step forward.

Sing I Come From…
Sing The Gift I Bring Is…
Sing The Gift I Am Is…
Sing The Gift We Are Is…
Sing.

Report on International Women’s Day talk by Rev. Tess Vertucio from the United Church of Christ Philippines

This year's International Women's day event at PANA gathered 20 women and men to listen and discuss the ongoing challenges facing women in church leadership around the globe. Rev. Tess Vertucio, a conference minister in the United Church of Christ Philippines (UCCP), was our special guest to share about the Philippines context. This was followed by a rich sharing of experiences among the culturally, religiously and nationally diverse group that was gathered. Participants shared about the similar struggles of women leaders in the church in Indonesia, Africa, and here in the United States in Euro-American, Polynesian, African-American and Buddhist contexts.

Rev. Vertucio presented research she conducted with the ordained women ministers in the UCCP Southern Luzon Jurisdiction Area. Her study found that although women are conferred the status of ordination in the UCCP, (the first woman was ordained pastor in 1936, and bishop in 1998), women are in the vast minority and do not have a fair representation or equal status in the church leadership, especially at regional and national church levels. Many women church workers in the Philippines tend to be steered towards being Deaconesses rather than ordained as clergy who exert more authority in the decision-making and executive functions of the church.

The historical ordination of a few women, has failed to address the issue of women's subordination and the inclusion of a women's agenda (the valuing of women's lives and natural gifts) in church ministry. Vertucio mentioned a myriad of structural, cultural and social obstacles facing women pastors and warned that the church must be careful not to be content with the mere ordination of women. Such contentment, she warned, leaves the plight of women still unattended. True change will only be addressed when ministry is redefined as partnership among women and men. The UCCP as a church is committed to the transformation of society and involved in the struggles for democracy and justice in the Philippines. Vertucio commented that these movements have often asked women to put the "women's issue" on the back burner. But true liberation, she said, cannot happen unless it also includes justice, liberation and equality for women.

Rev. Vertucio hopes to create a program of empowerment that will address the isolation and marginalization of Filipino women pastors.

March 7: Rev. Teresita B. Vertucio, United Church of Christ Philippines

You are invited to an International Women's Day Luncheon:

Join us at PANA for a lunch, presentation and discussion

Wednesday, March 7^th

12:00 noon

Please RSVP

International Speaker:

Rev. Teresita B. Vertucio,

elected Conference Minister (Pastoral/Executive Position) of the

United Church of Christ Philippines

Northeast Southern Tagalog Conference

“Leaders yet Subordinate: The Place of Women Ministers in the Church”

This paper draws from Rev. Teresita B. Vertucio’s experience and research of the UCCP South Luzon Jurisdiction Area where women are ordained yet hardly stand on equal footing with male counterparts in terms of policy making and program initiatives of the church. The very low percentage of women who are having access to empowerment programs, and being yet unorganized, contribute to this status of subordination in a church that is patriarchal.

REV. TERESITA B. VERTUCIO was ordained minister of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in 1987 after already serving as a Lay Pastor since 1980. She has a Bachelor of Theology from Union Theological Seminary Philippines (1978-1982), and Master of Arts in Religious Studies--Women & Religion (Thesis Writing) from 2002-2004. She had some involvement in GABRIELA Southern Tagalog (early 90's) and DIAKONIA, a women church workers’ organization (also in Southern Tagalog), which has both national and ecumenical character.

Please RSVP for the luncheon: contact Deborah Lee at dlee@psr.edu or 510-829-8260.