My Journey

I come from the Philippines. Born and raised in Mindanao. A place called by many as war-stricken and poverty-stricken place. I am an expressive person. I direct and produce films. I write all sorts of articles. I am twice-widowed. I am an incest survivor.

My journey in life is full of stories and tales that will make one inspiring saga. But the narratives taken from the grassroots community are far more engaging. Mine is more domesticated than the life experiences most women in my community have.

They have all the stories of war and conflict, of submissiveness and complacency, of conservatism and nonchalance, of hope and pessimism. They are torn of the ironies in life. They both experience joy and despair at the same time and of the same place.

What I learned from them becomes my inspiration in prevailing my active participation in the local legislation and local governance program implementation, being a member of the Technical Working Group for Gender and Development Program. Their stories also inspires me to endure writer's block in writing a screenplay that will depict the real life and story of women from the grassroots.

It is both challenging and inspiring to persist in what I have been doing though. I am banging my head on thick walls of arrogance and hypocrisy of a highly patriarchal society that I tend to run and wail in silence to the arms of fellow women who became my mentors when I was healing from the fangs of sexual abuse.

I have their affirmations I am on the right track. I have their words of encouragement. But they have to uncling my arms from theirs so I could eventually learn to stand on my own.

It has been a struggle. I would think why do people get full financial support making a trash generating income than those people like me who would want to create a more valuable showcase of real life stories. Even to create a venue for women to develop their skills and talents and eventually learn new things.

I really would like to take advantage of the ability of most women to tell stories. I'd like to gather them, share my knowledge in writing, story development and eventually filmmaking so that we may create a movement for women who shoot films to educate others and to unfold the untold stories from the grassroots.

I'd like to take advantage of my membership with the local Gender and Development TWG to lobby my vision for women to be empowered.

I do not want them to get stucked at simply using words to assert. I want to develop fellow creators. I want to take another journey in life with women who will be empowered by enhancing the skills they already have.I have my own blog and I want them to share it with me. And I want to use film to educate. I want to shoot films to advocate.