‘One Billion Rising’ and the Epstein files
When you rape, beat, maim, mutilate, burn, bury, or terrorize women, you destroy the essential energy on the planet.”—from “The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler.
Tomorrow is V-Day. V is for Valentine, for violence against women to end, for that part of a writhing woman’s genitalia that thrusts forth the miracle of new life into the universe. Alas, because of evil forces at work, many life-giving girls and women end up violated, mutilated, abused. But, still, they rise.
It has been 14 years since “One Billion Rising” (OBR) began as an action day on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2012. This was the brainchild of Ensler, activist, artist, and author of the groundbreaking “The Vagina Monologues.” Her move that caught fire worldwide was based on United Nations data that one in three women or 1 billion will experience abuse in their lifetime. As an “uprising” or movement, OBR utilizes art, protest, dance, and mass gatherings to demand an end to violence against women (VAW).
OBR is a call for change. Yearly themes vary and are highlighted through mass activities. Last year’s theme was “Rise for Empathy.” This year it is “Rise for our Bodies, Our Earth, Our Future.”
Organized women in the Philippines were among the first to join the OBR movement to manifest their outrage in different venues in 2014, among them St. Scholastica’s College in Manila, where students in different levels and courses are made aware of their rights as women. Since then, it has been a yearly mass activity in different parts of the country and across the world.
Today, the eve of Valentine’s Day, Feb. 13, at 8 a.m., St. Scholastica’s Manila will again hold an OBR awareness-raising event. This is in partnership with several civil society groups. Church-related women’s groups will have their OBR at 9 a.m. at the auditorium of the Philippine Christian University on Taft Avenue in Manila.
At 4 p.m. today, Kabataang Gabriela will hold its OBR at the academic oval of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Its expanded theme is “Rise Against VAW, Corruption, and Fascism” with the kicker “sa lansangan, sa pamantasan, sa bawat espasyo ng paglaban—tayo ay babangon. (On the streets, in the academe, in every space—we will rise.)”
Surely, there will be women’s groups converging today and tomorrow in places outside of Metro Manila.
Incidentally, while writing this piece, I am also waiting for a reply to the request that I sent to the Anti-Cybercrime Group of the Philippine National Police for statistics on “love scams” and “sextortions,” crimes involving many gullible Filipino women and male predators. How prevalent are these and why? After I forwarded my request to another office, as I was advised, I still received no reply. Anyway, the Inquirer’s editorial two days ago (“Spurning love scammers, 2/11/26), was timely for V-Day.
I wish I could say otherwise, but just as I have little or no sympathy for willing victims of hazing, who end up in the ICU or the morgue (I do sympathize with their families), I have little sympathy for women who get lured into love scams via social media, women who end up victims of blackmail and extortion. How could these women allow themselves to be on camera while in sexual activity with their partners, who turn out to be blackmailers? Were they not warned at home or in school?
If I were the police official presenting the victims and the handcuffed predators or dreamed-of “Afams,” I wouldn’t be so composed. To the gullible women out there, I’d say, for effect, “Kayong mga kababaihan, huwag kayong tatanga-tanga.”
Hogging the world’s news these days are the so-called Epstein files, which have to do with the United States justice department publishing “3.5 million responsive pages in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.” According to the department’s website, “more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images are included in today’s additional publication.” To think that techies from the Philippines might have been allegedly involved in deleting important data that could have revealed more Jeffrey Epstein links to known world personalities and celebrities, royalty included.
Epstein, “a convicted pedophile and conman,” died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019. Numerous famous persons have been implicated, and many of his victims—of the more than 1,000 as alleged—have come forward belatedly. He roamed freely for decades before justice caught up with him. Now his longtime partner and perpetrator, Ghislaine Maxwell, found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offenses connected to Epstein’s case, is behind bars and could be hoping for clemency from US President Donald Trump, who is himself …
The Epstein case is staggering and multilayered, spanning the globe. How could this operation, which victimized women—some underage—have gone on for so long? Someone should write a book on this. What an absorbing read it would be.
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