SEOUL, 14 October 2014 – Philippine Ambassador to Korea Raul S. Hernandez highlighted the Philippines’ contributions to the improvement of the status of women in Asia during the opening ceremony for the 21st Convention and International Symposium of the Federation of Asia-Pacific Women’s Associations (FAWA) held on 14 October 2014 at the Lotte Hotel Seoul.

Patricia B. Licuanan, chair of the Commission on Higher Education, noted in the conference’s keynote address the progress accomplished in the 20 years since the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995 by reconsidering gender inequality issue as a matter of public policy, which was previously ignored in the name of tradition. However, she also pointed out continuing discrimination against women in the areas of employment, salary, and accessibility to social security and public service. While there have been advances in women’s level of education has advanced, it has not been sufficient to stimulate socioeconomic changes, she said. Education for women is significant, but gender equality is possible when existing socioeconomic conditions change and women can access to diverse opportunities, she said, adding that women must draw from accumulated wisdom, tap limitless resilience, use new technologies, enhance partnerships with men and NGOs. “Indeed, the role of women has improved since the time of the founding of FAWA fifty-five years ago under the leadership of its very first President, Ms. Minerva Laudico, in the Philippines”, Ambassador Hernandez said in remarks during the opening ceremony of the biannual convention of the pioneering women’s organization. “The Philippines itself had two female presidents and currently has women serving as chief justice of the Supreme Court, and as holders of several cabinet positions and government agencies, among many others”, he stressed. Hosted by the Korean National Council of Women (KNCW), the five-day convention was attended by some 1,000 women’s association leaders, including 20 from the Philippines, under the theme “Empowering Women for Gender Equality in the Asia-Pacific Region”. Prime Minister Chung Hongwon and Minister Kim Heejung of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family also delivered congratulatory remarks while South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Executive Director of UN Women Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka sent video messages. KNCW President Dr. Jung-sook Kim assumed FAWA’s presidency in 2012, a year before President Park, South Korea’s first female President, took office in February 2013. This is also the first time that South Korea has hosted the biennial meeting. FAWA was first conceived of in 1952 by Geronima T. Pecson, a leading personality in the National Federation of Women's Club (NFWC) of the Philippines. She urged Minerva G. Laudico, then the President of NFWC, to initiate the unification of Asian women. This led to the founding of FAWA by a group of Asian women leaders in Manila on 19 June 1959. It is now supported by thirty-three women’s groups from fifteen Asia-Pacific countries. FAWA Conventions are held every two years. It was held in Guam in 2012 and Taiwan in 2009.