A woman's rights

Being a celebrity attracts probing if not malicious newshounds. You can imagine the pain and embarrassment national and international figures go through when their private decisions regarding their bodies are publicly disclosed. That, they say, is the price that popularity exacts. In the case of President Macapagal-Arroyo’s choice to have a breast implant in the 1980s, it was a personal decision, and she should not be blamed for it. Why raise so much brouhaha over that? Of course if she underwent the procedure when she became president, it would be a different matter; the nation needs to know what’s happening to her health-wise. Any major development affecting her health — a tonselectomy, a mastectomy, a polypectomy, an appendectomy, a sprained ankle, a headache that does not disappear — these the Filipino people have the right to know. They want to know her frailties, as well as her physical and of course mental and emotional wellbeing to make sure that she is capable of running the affairs of the nation. And heavens, what happens if she is incapable of doing so — will her successor be fit to run the country? Tsk. Tsk.

But a breast implant — performed 20 years ago which does not affect her capacity to rule should not be something to make fun of or to shatter her reputation. It is a woman’s prerogative to have a bust lift or a nose lift or a liposuction — if that will make her feel good about herself.

Sen. Loren Legarda have the same thoughts about the matter. She has issued a press statement saying that “the rights of women, and of all people for that matter, over their health concerns must be respected even if the concerned are public officials like President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.”

“We should be aware that there are things that are private and personal even when it comes to public figures,” said Loren, author of a number of landmark laws on women’s rights and empowerment.

“The confidential relationship between a doctor and a patient must always be respected, unless a medical condition as in the case of the President is already interfering with her performance as a public official,” she said.

The senator explained that “whether people are talking about breast implants or a woman’s concern about breast cancer, that is a matter whose public disclosure rests solely on the concerned party.”

“Breast cancer, as one of the leading killers of women worldwide, is a life and death concern of every woman, who must be given by society the very basic respect of being allowed to deal with it privately, if she so desires, or publicly, if her intention is to raise public awareness on the killer disease.”

Loren has established the Bessie Legarda Foundation precisely to help Filipino women fight the menace of breast cancer, a disease which her mother Bessie Legarda bravely fought to the very end. Early detection of breast cancer is a must if the chances for recovery are to be increased, the senator said.

* * *

A sad day for mourning came with the passing away last week of activist singer Susan Fernandez. Susan was known for her socially-oriented songs, the most remembered of which is “Babae Ka.”

According to her brother Edgardo, 15 people were with Susan during her last moments at Medical City. She breathed her last while her guitarist-singer-friend Lester Demetillo was in the middle of playing her favorite song, “Both Sides Now.” In the middle of the song, said Edgardo, “Bumaba ang pulse rate niya hanggang mag-flat line,” he told abs-cbnNEWS.com in a phone interview.

Susan had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in March 2008. She had a remission and continued singing and playing the guitar at small concerts and gatherings. A few weeks ago, when the disease returned, fund-raising events were held by friends. But she succumbed to the Big C. Her remains were cremated last Sunday.

Susan was married to political analyst and Philippine STAR columnist Alex Magno. They have two sons, Inno and Kalayaan. She was the second child in a brood of seven.

Edgardo recalls that his sister brought him along to cause-oriented activities to play the guitar for him in her singing engagements. This influenced him into engaging in cause-oriented activities. She was, says the brother, “very nice, very pleasant and very warm, and when she was diagnosed with cancer, she faced the illness head on.”

One of Susan Fernandez’s colleagues, Susan Tagle, said the singer was “a gentle yet strong person who was loved by her children very much.” The two friends met in 1976 at the University of the Philippines during the activist movement. “Lagi kaming nagkakasama sa rally, kumakanta . . . nag-gi-guitar,” Susan Tagle recalls.

According to Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta of the UP Office of Alumni Relations, Susan Fernandez was known as “The Nightingale of the Philippine Progressive Political Movement,” and became famous when she recorded the Metro Pop award-singing song, “Babae Ka,” which is a tribute to women power and feminism.

Writes Celeste: “She was an educator and performing artist who used her songs to raise public awareness on the plight of Filipino women as well as their vital role in society.”

Susan also hosted the longest running cultural shows on television, “Concert at the Park.”

* * *

I need more data about Luz Alabastro Einsiedel, but for now, let me just say she has passed away.

At her wake held at the UP Church of the Risen Lord, her accomplishments as a shining light in the National Young Women’s Christian Association were cited. She served as president from 1962 to 1964, during which time she saw the realization of a dream come true — the construction of the National YWCA headquarters which paved the way for the opening of transient residence service, and the creation of more Y-Teens, and the relentless drive against gambling.

* * *

My e-mail:[email protected]