Maricar “Chi” Laigo Vallido
No one can deny the power today’s media has in shaping opinions and instituting cultural norms in society. Television, radio and cinema alike are all influential mediums whose messages become trends and eventually mold individual perceptions on serious issues that in the long run, affect society as a whole. While the power behind media can serve as a mechanism for positive change, sadly, the media is also identified as the culprit in perpetuating injustices against women.
This is the reality that Maricar "Chi Laigo Vallido" aims to bring to light every day through her work in social justice. Her goal is to bring this awareness to media practitioners and inform them of the significant responsibility they have to communicate important and honest messages that will provide people with the proper perspective for meaningful change. As Advocacy Specialist for the Forum for Family Planning and Development, Inc. (FFPD). Vallido works on developing a new breed of media that will be more sensitive to issues pertaining to human rights, particularly women’s and children’s rights.
“I have been managing and conducting trainings for media practitioners on gender sensitive reporting, Reproductive Health, women and human rights since 2000. Recently, I had an idea of expanding our media training to include filmmakers. We started by training scriptwriters to develop stories relating to Reproductive Health issues. We held community exposure visits for them to see the realities that we hope to be reflected in their future creative works. The actual purpose of this – more than encouraging film – is to give filmmakers an orientation on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and for them to understand the importance of Reproductive Health. We also sponsored debates and monthly press conferences to really tap eminent and influential people whose opinions matter to both the public and the media,” Vallido shares.
An opinionated activist, Vallido seemed pre-destined to be in the NGO community and from a young age, has embraced a burning passion to both fight for gender equality and raise more awareness to women’s rights.
“Growing up, I was exposed to those issues. I wondered why some children couldn’t go to school and why some women in the neighborhood were being beaten up. I knew it was wrong because at home our parents always reminded us that there’s absolutely no excuse for a man to hit a woman. As a family, we’re not afraid to express what we feel, so it’s not really a surprise that my brothers, sisters and I ended up doing NGO work” she discloses.
While human rights shaped the core of Vallidos' social identity, she also forged a career in the arts. At the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Vallido majored in Film and Audio Visual Communication while participating in the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), a leading theater company in the Philippines known to mount plays with political and social undertones. After graduating, she worked in the industry on campaign and documentary film.
“I was actually tapped by a production house to do the documentary that featured our farmers from the Visayas, and I’m really grateful that I had a good head-start in doing something that I really love. In my crew, I was the youngest and the only woman at that time, and I really enjoyed being in charge.”
After her stint in production, Vallido spent nearly nine years working in advocacy with the Philippine NGO Council and as the editor-in-chief of LINK magazine. Eventually, she returned to filmmaking and left the NGO to finish her Masters in Development Communication at the UP Open University. In April of 2008 she was invited to join the FFPD, Inc. by Benjamin De Leon and continues to work with them today.
“Mr. Ben was our Chairman of the Board at the Philippine NGO Council, and when he started the organization, he invited me to join. As Advocacy Specialist, my job is to deal with media practitioners. It’s actually in the same line of work as my previous job, but instead of the local media , I’m dealing with national media.”
Through a fellowship with Packard, Vallido received a grant to study Independent Cinema at the University of Southern California and in 2009 under her initiative, the FFPD, Inc. started Cine-Indie for the MDGs. The project aims to expand media to include the Indie community through a national short film competition on developmental issues. The organization plans to make Cine-Indie an annual activity and it is for this project that Vallido’s organization received support from the Leadership Development for Mobilizing Reproductive Health (LDM).
“LDM gave us funding for Cine-Indie and when my paper on the project was accepted for poster presentation in an international RH conference in Beijing, LDM gave me a fellowship. Up to now, I enjoy working with LDM because we share the same passion, creativity is encouraged and we go around conducting forums in various areas.”
When asked what she still wants to accomplish in life, Vallido shares that she wants to continue to teach more artists about Reproductive Health issues and to make more short films. Her latest one is a documentary on maternal deaths in the Philippines entitled “Tungkol Kay Olivia” (About Olivia).
“We need to teach writers and filmmakers to resist sexism and the objectification of women that are usually seen in TV shows and movies today. I always tell our participants from the media and film that RH and women’s issues are not new. That they have always worked on these topics and stories. But after the training, they now see the issues using a different lens and that’s the difference. That’s where the change begins. By using the medium that I love, I hope to be able to influence artists to start resisting the formula that prejudices women. I want to be able to encourage them to tell the real stories of women and raise awareness about the country’s disturbing development issues.” The trajectory of Vallido's successful career clearly illustrates how building a space where both her passions can work together and inform the other, can empower and promote positive change in the community.
-Lhot Jiz de Ortega, Contributing Author