BACOLOD City -- Militant women’s group Gabriela is holding a big rally today to commemorate the 100 years of the declaration of the International Women’s Day and air grievances against the Arroyo administration.

Gabriela Secretary General Ma. Rina Amacio said the rally will start at Lupit Church. The group will then march to the Bacolod Public Plaza. They expect 3,000 women to join the rally.

Amacio said Negros is joining thousands of women all over the country in protesting the continuing economic and political crises that burdens women and their families.

She noted a survey of the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) which revealed that 47 percent of the women respondents said they are mostly affected by cost-cutting measures of families in their meals, either one or twice a day or buying cheaper and less nutritious food.

The survey also revealed that 77.61 percent of the respondents said that they take on additional jobs like vending food and other merchandise to augment the family’s inadequate income.

In Negros, Amacio said this is a usual situation.

“If the price of sugar goes up, it has no concrete impact on the lives of the sugar workers. The wages are pegged at the lowest that could hardly make both ends meet even for a day’s meal,” she said.

“The burden on women and children is caused by economic woes resulting from the Arroyo government’s pro-globalization polices,” she stressed.

Meanwhile, Amacio said the commemoration and protest action also “demand for justice for the victims of the government’s repressive measures, including the Ampatuan massacre wherein 15 of the victims are women, and the case of the 43 health workers illegally arrested and detained of which 26 are women.”/PN