ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: Some women activists in the Philippines have woven their call for equality and the resignation of Philippine president Joseph Estrada into a line of clothing. GMA-7 News has more on their political fashion show.</s>GMA-7 NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is not your usual fashion show. For one thing, the militant women's group Gabriela organized it and it was designed to make a statement about President Estrada's so-called anti-women policies. Gabriela secretary-general Liza Maza says they have reason to complain.</s>LIZA MAZA, GABRIELA SECRETARY-GENERAL: The two years under President Estrada are the years of living dangerously for women.</s>PALANIVEPERES: The show opened with a woman bent over an old- fashioned sewing machine, sewing representing the only job open to most women of lowly station, which is why in Gabriela's show, each dress, head dress or accessory came with its own message. This apron protests contractualization with no chance of regularization of department store personnel. This one hits the export of labor. This dress objects to the swift industrialization of agricultural lands, the show the conversion of rich farmlands into golf courses. Each tentacle in this octopus hair dress is tagged with the name of a government owned and controlled corporation which has since been privatized. These include basic utilities like the National Power Corporation and the Metropolitan Water Works and Sewage System which Gabriela believes are better served by the government. Gabriela also found time to take pot shots of a different sort. This model played the president in a shirt painted with the name of his official first lady in front, and his unofficial ones at the back. This local actress played the role of his most colorful crony in a gown emblazoned with 3,000 pairs of shoes. Leaders of other militant groups trooped on the catwalk in clothes bearing messages against his other cronies. As the show drew to a close, this archetype of the Filipino in chains literally and figuratively did a turnaround to emerge unafraid to fight for her rights and her beliefs. In her wake, this
Women Activists Put Together Political Fashion Show in Philippines