One of the candidates for councilor in Bacolod City is a staunch advocate of women and sectoral empowerment, gender equality, and good governance. Causes that she has been espousing since the early 90s.
Celia Matea Rodriguez Flor, more popularly known as Celia Flor, has been working on women empowerment and gender equality for the past 30 years, not only in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, but also in the national and international scenes.
The woman is an expert on Gender and Development (GAD), and a well-known fighter for women’s rights and against corruption. A no-nonsense lady, who is brave and strong, as truth and justice are some of the values she upholds.
Celia Flor said she decided to seek, again, a seat in the Bacolod City Council, because she observed that the city has been neglected.
“Bacolod has a big budget but we cannot see what it supports. Unlike other LGUs, social services or programs for the different vulnerable or marginalized sectors are very much lacking,” she said.
Celia Flor served as Bacolod councilor from July 1995 to June 2004, and from July 2007 to June 2010. Among her significant ordinances sponsored and passed were the ordinances Formulating the Framework Plan for Women, creation of various bodies such as the Bacolod City GAD Council, Local Anti-Poverty Council, Bacolod Labor-Management Council, and Local Council for the Filipino Family.
She has also authored the Establishment of the Fisheries Code of Bacolod City (the city has 14 coastal barangays out of 61), Ordinance Penalizing VAWC and Establishing Quick Response Teams in All Barangays of Bacolod City, and an Ordinance Institutionalizing Transparent Services in all Government Services Office in the City of Bacolod.
Celia Flor has been a member of the Women Sectoral Council of the National Anti-Poverty Commission Basic Sectors since its establishment during the term of then President Fidel Ramos, a post she held before she became councilor, and held again after her stint in government.
She became the Women Sectoral Representative under the term of the late Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, until she stepped down in 2017, shortly after the Duterte administration.
Celia Flor, who took up AB Journalism at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, is a graduate of the Negros Occidental High School, and the Education and Training Center School. A resident of Brgy. Taculing, she has also attended La Consolacion College Bacolod during her formative years.
MEDIA & NGO WORKS
In the 80s, Celia Flor was information director of West Negros College (now STI West Negros University) and moderator of the student publication, Wesneco Torch, before she became the executive director of DAWN, or the Development Through Active Women Networking Foundation.
In her capacity as executive director, she steered DAWN’s programs on advocacy, education and training, capacity building, networking, research and empowerment, practicing non-hierarchical leadership.
With her staff, she set directions on pioneering programs, such as women in politics and transformative governance; influencing gender mainstreaming in local government units, particularly in the province of Negros Occidental and the City of Bacolod; gender responsive budgeting, and Community Based Monitoring System.
Celia Flor was founding officer of the Bacolod Consortium of Women Organizations, which tasked itself to lobby for the establishment of the Women’s Center, the first temporary shelter for victims of VAW in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental. After the Center was inaugurated in 1995 by then President Cory Aquino, Celia Flor served as the volunteer executive director for more than a decade.
When they started in early 90s, domestic violence or VAW was a non-issue, and considered as a normal part of married life. At that time, barangays, social welfare, police, and health offices have no programs on VAW yet.
She also took part in convening the Legislative Advocates for Women in Negros, which drafted and lobbied for the passage of the ordinance creating the Provincial Council for Women (PCW) in 1994.
As member of PILIPINA, a national feminists organization, Celia Flor was active in the signature campaigns and advocacy and lobbying work for the passage of various national legislations, such as the progressive Anti-Rape Law, Anti-Sexual Harassment Law, Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act, the Magna Carta of Women, and the Safe Spaces Act, among others.
WHY WOMEN? WHAT POLITICS
With DAWN Foundation’s program of women in politics, Celia Flor was supposed to run for the sectoral elections in 1995 but when this was scrapped, the Bacolod women’s group decided that she should file as councilor at-large, to further the advocacy on the need for women’s representation in formal decision-making bodies.
She filed as an independent candidate but was adopted by the Partido Paglaum of then Mayor Alfredo Montelibano Jr. Since then, she always ran as an independent candidate and was always adopted by political parties, who believed in her stance and causes, particularly her advocacy for women’s representation and empowerment of the marginalized or the basic sectors.
Her previous and current involvements as director or officer of local, regional, national, and international organizations, such as Reach Foundation (1998-2012), Philippine Mental Health Association-Bacolod Chapter (1998-2012), Phil. National Red Cross Bacolod Chapter (1996 to 2013), chair of the Regional GAD Committee of the Regional Development Council of Region 6 (2010 to 2013), national vice president of Abanse! Pinay, the first women’s Sectoral Party List organization which has advocated and passed legislations significant to women, (2001-2007);
National vice chairperson of WAND, or the Women’s Action Network for Development, a national network of women and sectoral development organizations (2010-2013), and currently, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women–Asia Pacific, which is an international network of feminist groups, organizations, and individuals fighting the sexual exploitation of women globally, gave her deeper understanding of issues confronting families and communities, and empowering solutions to social issues.
Among her international fellowships as trainer and trainee on governance and gender are on GAD mainstreaming in Cambodia, Nepal, Thailand, Canada, U.S.A., Indonesia, and India. She has also undergone trainings on gender mainstreaming, VAW and governance in Canada, Indonesia, India, and Germany.
Celia Flor has represented the Philippines in several world conferences on development, such as in Beijing, China, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
She also served as consultant to various gender and governance trainings conducted by the NAPC, DSWD, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, Philippine Commission on Women, and PILIPINA projects with MISERIOR, Freidrich Ebert Stiftung, and the Asian Development Bank. – NWI
