Feminism and the Women's Movement in the Philippines: Struggles, Advances, and Challenges Philippine government. Lanzona(2009: 134) argues that the existence of female guerillas, of rank commander no less, altered the discussion and the gender dynamics of the Huk rebellion in the Philippines and other peasant uprising in Southeast Asia. Further, the story of women guerillas showed that, in times of oppression and deceit, women could also be found fighting in the frontlines. Women Comrades: Resisting A Dictator and Persisting with the Struggle As the postwar years were, relatively speaking, years of peace for the Filipinos, many of whom considered the establishment of the electoral process as a manifestation of democracy, there seemed little need for women to agitate for new reforms, much less for structural changes within society(Santos, 2004: 34). Generally, the women's organizations that time were concerned with becoming social partners of men. It was in the late sixties that another social upheaval formed. The Vietnam War galvanized students into protesting against imperialism, while Vatican II gave rise to progressive Catholic activists (priests, laity, students) who demanded social justice and who started questioning authoritarianism in the classroom. Internally, there was the widening gap between the rich and the poor, intensifying economic distress and political instability bred by the country's dependence on foreign capital, and unbridled graft and corruption(Santos, 2004: 35). Things got worse after the 1969 elections – supposedly the dirtiest in Philippine history: Protests escalated in multiple folds, and the government was threatened with the momentum of organizing led by the newly established Communist Party of the Philippines or CPP in 1969(Abinales, 2005:193). Then came the First Quarter Storm(FQS) of 1970— a period of ferment characterized by massive protests marches and violent confrontation with the police, and propelled largely by a radicalized student movement whose agenda called for drastic changes in societal structures by means of raising the collective consciousness of the Filipino people with respect to the 'three evils' supposedly plaguing the exploited masses, namely,'imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism'(Santos, 2004). Various nationalist organizations were established precisely to rally around the cause and to call for genuine sovereignty and democracy(Santos, 2004: 35). Along with the rise of the students, workers, peasants and other social movements, the women's movement gained new momentum as it started to develop along Marxist-inspired lines. The Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan(Movement for Freedom by Progressive Women) or MAKIBAKA, established in July 1969, 'attempted to situate women's liberation within the context of the struggle against foreign domination and class oppression'(Valte, 1992: 53). Elumbre(2010: 212) related that the most memorable act of MAKIBAKA was the protest it staged against the annual Miss Philippines beauty pageant in 1970. MAKIBAKA was reorganized sometime in the late 1970s by the Communist-led national democratic movement, and the original autonomously-formed organization was reoriented into an'arm' of the National Democratic Front(NDF)(Estrada­Claudio, 2005). The organization dwindled due to the dilution of the women's issues in the national democratic framework of the CPP, which asserted that women's empowerment would come only when the class revolution had been won. MAKIBAKA found itself primarily occupied with national issues, and attempts to forge a link between women's concerns and national issues,'proved to be ambitious, and perhaps, untimely' (Santos, 2004: 36). In 1975, the Katipunan ng Bagong Pilipina(KABAPA) was founded by women who had been active in the HUKBALAHAP and subsequent peasant-based formations. KABAPA's constitution had the flavor of Third World feminism in that it addressed national, class, and gender issues under its goals of equality, development, peace, freedom and the happiness of children(Estrada-Claudio, 2005). In the eighties, two more women's organizations were founded: the Kilusang Kababaihang Pilipina (Philippines Women's Movement) or PILIPINA in 1981, and the Katipunan ng Kalayaan para sa Kababaihan (Organization of Women for Freedom) or KALAYAAN in 1983. Both of these new organizations saw the need for a separate and autonomous women's movement with respect to the national democratic framework(Elumbre, 2010: 211­212). Sobritchea(2004a: 46-47) noted that: PILIPINA and the KALAYAAN were the first groups to focus on women's issues, both on the personal and societal levels. Both groups launched study sessions and campaigns against sexism in media, the violation of women's reproductive rights, gender violence, prostitution and gender inequality in access to employment as well as income. By tackling these issues, discourses on the 3