Advocacies
Tesay Glinoga’s Advocacies and Projects
- Project “Kulay Malaya” for street children
- Project “Lambong” for street families
- Devotion to the Virgin of the Poor, organized processions and vigils for the consecration of the country
- March Na! An Ode to Women, 2007 Women’s Month, organized breakfast forum and all-men Fun Run
- Men for Women Movement, 2008 Women’s Month, organized Race Walk, Signature Campaign among men to support “Say No to Violence Against Women.” Designed and conducted Psycho-Spritual Counseling and Healing Catholic Meditation, (Carmelite) Volunteer Teacher for the Secondary Night School, St. Scholastica’s College
Kulay Malaya
Every time Tesay sees street children or scavengers, she cries, “My soul churns. How can we let our children suffer? I don’t know where my tears are coming from; I just believe that God has allowed me to see them through His eyes.”
This started Tesay’s project “Kulay Malaya.” Tesay warms up with a smile, “Imagine the color of freedom. Imagine the beautiful colors that will replace the darkness of their lives when children are set free to run the expanse of green fields, or climb trees, or swim in the middle of the ocean, or let them fly in the sky. We have to bring that color back to their life, at least in their imagination when they see a glimmer of hope in their future. We stole their lives; therefore, it is our duty to let them reclaim their childhood.”
Tesay used to roll out her mats on any space, by the roads, creeks, cemeteries; read to children and allowed them to hold books, etc. But this, she thought was so temporary. So she had her office fenced and she adapted small communities. Every Saturday she accepts children to her office. She bathes them personally, feeds them, teaches them arts and reading; and in the afternoon, they all attend the mass together. Tesay asks for donations of goods, not money, from the neighbors. She would wait for the closing of store hours and beg from restaurants for their leftover breads. “I don’t want to give them the opportunity to doubt that I am using the money for other purposes; so I explicitly say in my flyers that we don’t accept money for donations.”
The long range goal of “Kulay Malaya” is to debrief the children from any form of abuse they have experienced in life. So, “Kulay Malaya” is a link between uprooting the children from their ugly experiences and planting them into mainstream society. Children are resilient. I have actually seen the positive changes after just a couple of weeks. But the Program will take at least one year to see a more lasting character formation on the children.
Tesay says, “The trouble is government tries to force feed children with schooling in the guise of education. Even adults cannot function when they are bombarded with problems. So why and how could we expect children to function effectively when they are still hurting? How can they carry the heavy burden on their tiny shoulders that is too much even for adults to carry? Some of them might be permanently broken. Just because government gives them free education, free textbooks or uniforms that we can already expect them to heal and live a normal life.”
Tesay admonishes the government to use social engineering to address the problems of society and stop using band-aid solutions.
“Kulay Malaya” should be a concerted effort of society. It has parallel efforts to reform the family that the children will go home to after they have undergone the program. If they go back to the same dysfunctional family, the children will slide back to their old self, and the program will all be an effort in futility. The concept is to have a functioning society. To achieve that, everybody should be able to become functional.
The same principles hold true for drug users and other addictions. Six months is not enough for rehabilitation. The programs can eat up a lot of budget, but Tesay believes that we have to start somewhere. Otherwise, the situation may become unmanageable; and we, as a society, will have to suffer the burden of guilt for not doing promptly what we should have done at least thirty years ago. Finger pointing consumes our energy. We are faced with the NOW. So our concerted efforts as a people should be funneled in the now; and the task should start now.
March Na! Ode to Women
Every Women’s Month, Tesay organizes activities specifically for men. “If men are the cause of women’s miseries; they should be part of the solution. We encourage men to participate in the process of dissecting the anatomy of abuse against women.”
Tesay has initiated the project, “March Na! An Ode to Women.” for Women’s Month. She organizes gender sensitivity seminars to men to raise their awareness on the plight of women. She also organized “Men for Women Movement that jumpstarted a 10K and 20K Race Walk among men which she envisions to become an international race in the future. She organized brisk walking trainings in Metro Manila and promoted it as a better exercise than jogging. Tesay was a long distance runner so she knows what she is talking about, “I promote brisk walking as part of healthy living. When people, specifically for this purpose, men, are engaged in healthy lifestyle, they veer away from vices such as smoking, drug use, or alcohol that blur one’s reason. The result is usually violence against the eventual victims: Women and children.
At the end of the race, men were asked to recite the “Ode to Women” and change from their jerseys to their “graduation T-shirts” with the printed logo “Certified Feminist.” The men were encouraged to commit to the advocacy through a campaign signature: No to Violence Against Women. Tesay has adapted her logo in violet color, the combination for the symbols for male and female, that symbolizes gender equality. “At the end of the day, we hope to achieve the harmony between men and women and among us,” Tesay concludes.
Education
EDUCATION
- Immaculate Conception Academy of Manila - Elementary and high school
- St. Paul College of Manila - Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Major in Clinical Psychology (Pre-med), Dean’s List
- Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, USA - AB Fashion Design, 1985,Top 5 of the class. Returned to the Philippines for the EDSA Revolution.
- St. Scholastica’s College, Manila - MA in Humanities, Major in Women’s Studies, earned Units
TRAININGS
- Market Research
- Personnel Administration
- Human Resource Management
- Records Management
- United Management System (MBA for United Laboratoties, Inc.)
- Assessment Center (Recruitment and Promotions Systems; Targeted Interview, In-Basket Case, etc.)
- CASA GAL /COURT AD LITEM-Ateneo Law School and the Supreme Court
- Upward Bound-Dr. Lourdes Vega (Formerly with DARE), Drug Rehabilitation and Attitudinal Training
- Poetry Writing - Ateneo University
- Scriptwriting-Star Cinema, Ken Rotcop, Nestor U. Torre, Film Academy of the Philippines
Family
FAMILY BACKGROUND
PARENTS AND SIBLINGS
JOSE C. GLINOGA, Teresita’s father, originated from Pitog, Quezon. He had degrees in Geodetic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering major in Designs at Feati University. He became an expert in the field of Industrial Engineering. He was a businessman in Lago, Nigeria where he built machines, among them sewing machines. During his retirement in the Philippines, Mr. Glinoga had built himself a motorboat for fishing. He was not only prayerful and religious, but spiritual, as well.
FELINA F. BAUTISTA, Teresita’s mother, studied BS Pharmacy. Her dedication and diligence in fulfilling her duties as a wife, a mother and a business woman can never be measured.
TERESITA GLINOGA-HIZON is the third of five siblings of women. The eldest, NERISSA G. ROBERTO, completed MS Economics at St. Theresa’s College. The second is GERTRUDES G. TAN, finished her BS Math at Maryknoll College (now Miriam College). The fourth is ANNA MARIA G. UDARBE, who completed BS Nutrition at the College of the Holy Spirit and who is now living in Melbourne, Australia. The youngest is MARIA REGINA G. ALCABAZA, who took up BS Fine Arts at the College of the Holy Spirit.
MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS
AGRIPINO D. BAUTISTA served as the first Interim Governor of Bataan. He was one of those who passed the Constitution of the Democratic National Party which is now the Liberal Party. He was councilor of Manila. He was a labor leader who served honestly to the poor, to the nation and to the Church. He founded the Knights of Columbus in a few cities in the Philippines.
GERTRUDES FRANCISCO was a philanthropist, who helped many finish their education. Through her, Teresita learned the lesson on charity which was passed on to her by her mother: “Charity is when your pocket hurts”.
PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS
JOSE E. GLINOGA finished a law degree at Ateneo de Manila and served as the first judge in Quezon.
RITA M. CORREA was a housewife. Her mother was esteemed as “Golden Mother” because she raised 11 children who all graduated from college due to her hard work, patience and perseverance through looming of fish nets. One of her children is Dr. Milagros M. Correa, the first woman who passed and placed first at the Medical Board exam. Later, she founded and built a hospital in Lucena, Quezon that is now known as Mt. Carmel General Hospital, which she dedicated and donated to the Church when she entered as a nun for the Carmelite Order. She chose to give up worldly pleasures and fame in favor of living a life as a sister for the order. She is now Mother Catherine, the Prioress of Carmel of Our Lady in Gumaca, Quezon. She is known as the matriarch of the clan. She had enormous contributions as far as an influence in their faith. Men in Teresita’s family entered the seminaries and the women attended schools at different exclusive Catholic private schools for girls. In her clan, there are four nuns, three priests, one Brother. They have 25 medical doctors, lawyers and politicians in Quezon; some relatives are teachers and some are from other professions.
Awards
AWARDS
First Place Elocution Contest; wrote her own piece “Tao, Gumising Ka”
Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Short Story for Children, Second Place, 1996, “May Lugar ba sa Langit and Asong Batik-batik?” (Currently in the process of pre- publication as Children’s book series on values for age level 12 years old and above)
Ka Amado Poetry Contest, Second Place, 1997
Pitchmart Scriptwriting Contest, Finalist, 1997
Catholic Mass Media Awards for Best Feature Story, Finalist, 2000
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Invited Speaker in various forums and conducted recollections: St. Scholastica’s College, Sacred Heart College, Miriam College, University of the Philippines, Unicef, NCRFW, Gabriela, etc.; before the Congresswomen for the passage of the Anti-VAWC; in the joint workshop/seminar for the department heads of government agencies by the NCRFW and Unicef to improve the system and service in women’s intervention in women’s desks.
Topics: Anatomy of Abuse; Law on Marital Rape; Sexual Harassment; Psycho-Spiritual Conversion (capital sins, gifts of the Spirit, Forms of Prayer, Catholic Meditation); Marian Dogma; Mother Mary’s Relevance Today; Discernment of good versus evil; The Will to Will; Dark Night of the Soul; Upward Bound
PERSONAL ADVOCACIES
- Project “Kulay Malaya” for street children
- Project “Lambong” for street families
- Devotion to the Virgin of the Poor, organized processions and vigils for the consecration of the country
- March Na! An Ode to Women, 2007 Women’s Month, organized breakfast forum and all-men Fun Run
- Men for Women Movement, 2008 Women’s Month, organized Race Walk, Signature Campaign among men to support “Say No to Violence Against Women.”
- Designed and conducted Psycho-Spritual Counseling and Healing Catholic Meditation, (Carmelite)
- Volunteer Teacher for the Secondary Night School, St. Scholastica’s College
IN COLLEGE
- Organized a theater group with friends “Dilat Na Bulag” Foundation comprising the Out-of-school youth, juvenile delinquents, Drug Users
- Produced and directed Stage Plays; used theater to raise social awareness against martial rule
- Conducted theater workshops in depressed areas in Manila
TRAVELS
Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, USA.
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