International Women's Day Statement 2025

This March, we celebrate Women’s Month, underscored by our commemoration of International Women’s Day today, March 8. Amid challenges and multiple crises women face daily, we remain strong—fortified by the will to continue to resist.

This month, we celebrate all women who tirelessly uphold our rights and assert our space in our society. We honor all the women who have sacrificed their lives to allow us the freedoms and rights we enjoy today.

Women march on to fight for the protection of our environment, for food, for land, and for our human rights. However, women continue to face societal and structural challenges operating within the systems of patriarchy.

Under the Marcos-Duterte Administration, the presence of destructive mining operations have grown inordinately stronger; with mining applications pouring in, and mining corporations even more aggressive as they insist entry in indigenous communities. The government has made moves to fast track the processing of mining applications, which may further lead to more abuse in the already problematic attainment of genuine and legitimate free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of indigenous peoples.

The lives of indigenous women are rooted in land and the environment. The destruction, then, of our environment, is the destruction of their indigenous way of life.

Indigenous women are food producers. During times of calamity and disaster, they are most vulnerable. On top of ensuring their families have food to eat, they are subjected to discrimination, violence, and meager access to aid and social services.

The connivance of our government with greedy corporations whose interests serve only their own and profit-oriented exacerbates the situation of indigenous peoples, most especially indigenous women. The enduring power wielded by political dynasties, businesses, elitist notions of progress drive the worsening crises and corruption in the Philippines even deeper, that hinders the progressive realization of the economic, social, and cultural rights of indigenous women and the Filipino people.

While indigenous women continue their human rights defending work on issues faced by their communities, they face harassment, red-tagging, threats, and various attacks not only against them, but also their families. As such, the Philippines remains the most dangerous country in Asia for land and environmental defenders.

LILAK, as a feminist collective, continues to stand in solidarity with indigenous women. We continue to resist together with all women and girls from the different indigenous communities in the Philippines and in the world.

This March 2025, let us show our strength, and echo each other’s voices.

Let us hold the government accountable to their promises, commitments, and obligations.

Let us expose all who engage in corrupt practices and ensure that they are held accountable for their crimes.

Let us demand justice for all perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses.

Let us all continue to dream for and move toward a society that is free from discrimination, violence, and abuse—where we are all free from the shackles of patriarchal structures.