It is March!

February closes with a leap today, February 29, and March comes in during the leap year of 2024 with celebration and solemnity. If you were born in a leap year and are thinking of making a difference, follow a practical woman’s advice: jump high three times, wish for the moon, throw a party, or have fun with your family and friends. Whether you like it or not, it is your birthday; you have a bonus day. A tall tale: people born during the leap day are “short or lacking in fortune.” But in some cultures, like China, born on the leap day represents opportunity. In the West, babies born on February 29 are regarded as creative, having a “sixth sense.” For my political analyst husband, ever a pragmatic guy, why would we even care when most won’t know the difference?

It is March. There are events to celebrate and be thankful for, like the 50 years of Mariners, and to feel triumphant about yet still challenged economically and socially, like the International Women’s Month over 100 years ago. Then, at the end of March, the Christian world commemorates the Holy Week with a week-long Passion of the sufferings and death of Jesus as a symbol of the sufferings of families who live in abject poverty and want. March is both a joyous and solemn celebration.

Festive

This March at Mariners, the air is festive. Since late last year, the whole community has been preparing for the Golden Years Foundation of the parent school, the Mariners Polytechnic Colleges, on March 4. March 1 will be the opening of the four-day grand celebration of the 50-year foundation, with the Most Reverend Bishop Rolando Tirona, outgoing Archbishop of Caceres, celebrating a Thanksgiving Mass at the campus quadrangle. There is so much to thank for after 50 years of golden service to tens of thousands of graduates and their families whose lives have been touched and benefited from their years of Mariner’s schooling. Indeed, the slogan, “Sarong Marinero sa kada Pamilyang Bikolano,” is alive and has become a unifying call for greater resilience.

For the Mariners schools for which I have written three recent columns since last month, March is also doubly significant: March 4 is also a solemn celebration of the birthday of the late Engr. Boboy Jimenez on March 4, and the death commemoration of the late Founder, Jaime Chavez Jimenez, on March 20. So, understandably, the MPCI and the two other maritime Mariners schools – the MPCF in Canaman and MPCF in Legazpi – are in solidarity with one another, especially for the March events.

Triumphant yet challenged

In the meantime, March holds valuable meaning to the world’s women, including the women at Mariners, the Tabang Bikol Movement, JaimEliza, and the Camarines Sur Chamber of Commerce and Industry to which I belong, serving various causes in Bicol. March is International Women’s Day, commemorating the struggle of women who hold half of the sky and continue contributing to gender equality and inclusive society. It is a commemoration and a tribute to the triumphant women workers who marched through New York City’s Lower East Side on March 8, 1906, to protest the oppressive working conditions, child labor, and demand for women’s suffrage in the US From this beginning, March 8 became International Women’s Day annually worldwide. It has become a symbolic date to celebrate women’s achievements and promote women’s rights at home and in the workplace. The first International Women’s Day gathering was on March 8, 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. The UN declared it officially worldwide in 1975.

For TBM, the cause of women is a cause for the family and the disadvantaged sector in a dominantly patriarchal society. The Ilaw ng Kababaihan that TBM organized among the disaster survivors in Canaman, Camarines Sur, has grown, expanded to Albay, and continues to persevere in their journey as they assert their rights as empowered women engaged in HEAL-oriented community-based social enterprises. Women in the countryside, including the indigenous women and workers, face the burden of worsening economic difficulties, neglect, displacement, and physical violence. For the women in the MSME industry, the challenges are the same on the financial front – high cost of production and prices. Women everywhere in Bicol -in whatever sector – aspire for a better quality of life and a more equitable future.

There are laws recognizing women’s rights in the country: “Declaring the First Week of March of Every Year as Women’s Week and March 8, 1988, and Every Year after that as Women’s Rights and International Peace Day,” Anti Rape Law, Anti-Sexual Harassment, Anti-Trafficking, Anti-Violence against Women and Children Act and the Magna Carta of Women.

Sadly, to this day, violence against women and children, as well as a lack of better economic opportunities, persist. These sufferings and difficulties may be more articulated in the last week of March, as the Christian community commemorates a week of Lenten reflection from Lenten Palm Sunday to Holy Thursday and Good Friday with solemnity. Then comes a happy Easter!

It is March! We celebrate the 50 years of Mariners joyously, then triumphantly the victories of women’s power worldwide, but continue to face more challenges and life difficulties for women and their families on the economic and social front in the current period. The Holy Week becomes more relevant as we find solace in reflecting on the suffering and marginalization, poverty, deprivation, and sacrifices that many families continue to undergo. Whether it is a leap year or not, March is a euphony of varied experiences.