Center for Empowering Communities

Kababaihang Dangal ng Bayan 2013

In line with our advocacy and in recognition of the significant role played by women in community development and nation-building, CEC embarks on its fifth (5th) year of its search for outstanding women in the private sector to be capped by a cultural night in honor of the awardees and as tribute to womanhood. These activities will be presented jointly by the Kilusan para sa Ikauunlad ng Taumbayan(K.I.T.), a social movement and people’s organization based in the Second (2nd), Fifth (5th) and Sixth (6th) Districts of Quezon City.

Dubbed “Kababaihang Dangal ng Bayan”, the search for outstanding women is categorized as follows:

GAWAD LORENA (named after Martial Law martyr, poet and activist, Maria Lorena Barros) – for women aged 16-25 in recognition of (a) scholastic excellence and (b) community leadership

GAWAD CECILIA (named after Cecilia Munoz-Palma, the first Filipina justice of the Supreme Court and President of the 1986 Constitutional Commission) – for women aged 26-59 in recognition of excellence or leadership in (a) community development; (b) culture and arts; (c) education; (d) entrepreneurship; (e) home and family life; (f) human rights; and (g) socio-civic services

GAWAD TANDANG SORA (named after Melchora Aquino or Tandang Sora, “Ina ng Katipunan”)– for women senior citizens aged 60 and above in recognition of (a) lifetime achievement in community leadership and (b) exemplary service towards community empowerment.

Scope of Search: Covering areas from Barangay New Era to Sta.Lucia (along Commonwealth) to Batasan Hills and Payatas to Fairview, Apolonio Samson, Baesa to Unang Sigaw, and the barangays in Novaliches (Read more on Kababaihang Dangal ng Bayan).

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PAST WINNERS

Make Roads Safe

Cognizant of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, in line with the international Make Roads Safe campaign, and in response to the Philippine Global Road Safety Partnership, the NGO Center for Empowering Communities (CEC) and the Quezon City-based people’s movement Kilusan para sa Ikauunlad ng Taumbayan join hands in organizing the multi-sectoral public advocacy campaign Lansangang Ligtas: Buhay Higit sa Lahat.

While likewise seeking to reinforce current efforts in soliciting support from various stakeholders – government transport agencies, law enforcement units, automobile manufacturers, business groups and private associations, our campaign is slanted towards giving the road safety advocacy a “human face”. Thus, our tagline: buhay higit sa lahat (“life above all”). It is a campaign led by, and centered on the affected communities and the vulnerable road users: the young, the poor and the differently-abled.

Our campaign believes that road safety policies and budgets should be refocused to ensure “putting people first”. This can be done by adopting an action plan that will deliberately involve the concerned sectors and communities in a process of finding solutions to the challenges of road safety.

The core beliefs and positions of Lansangang Ligtas: Buhay Higit sa Lahat are as follows:

(a) Road safety is a human rights issue. It is ancillary to the most basic of our rights – the right to life. And the right to life does not only mean the right to be alive; it encompasses the right to a quality of life that affords human beings opportunities to attain the fullest of their potentials.

(b) Road traffic injury undermines progress on two (2) counts: it undermines growth, and the poor bear the brunt of the injury, with devastating consequences for their livelihoods, earnings and prospects for escaping poverty.

(c) Expanding road systems and reducing journey times, although vital to economic development, are not the ultimate measure of national progress. Neglect of road safety put actual lives at risk.

(d) Most road accidents are predictable and preventable; therefore, can be minimized.

(e) While conceding that accidents are primarily caused by human error, we must adopt a “safe systems approach” with the belief that a road system must be designed to expect and accommodate human error, recognizing that prevention notwithstanding, road users remain fallible and crashes will occur. The basic idea is to ensure that in the event of a crash, the impact on the victim should remain low so as not to cause death or serious injury.

(f) Road safety must be integrated into international and national development agenda/plan/goals.

(g) Road safety and the protection of vulnerable road users must be at the heart of national and local transportation strategies.

(h) Road safety advocacy can only succeed and be made sustainable by seriously involving the directly affected sectors and communities (Read More on Lansangang Ligtas).