PCC NEWS
July 12, 2012
BEAUTY QUEEN AND ACTIVIST MAITA GOMEZ, PASSES AWAY.
Manila---The Former beauty queen-turned-activist Maita Favis Gomez died on Thursday from a heart attack, a family source said.
Gomez won the 1967 Miss Philippines beauty pageant and represented the country in the Miss World contest in the UK. She was also a model for local fashion designer Pitoy Moreno and was even compared to the British model Twiggy..
She was married to a top San Miguel Corporation executive. But even before the declaration of martial law, she was very active in women’s causes led by the group, MAKIBAKA who picketed beauty contests during he First Quarter Storm. (FQS)
From an NPA fighter to a woman’s rights activist
She made headlines when she later joined the communist guerilla movement to fight the Marcos dictatorship during martial law. She married an NPA fighter who was also a student leader activist, Joey Decena during the FQS who was killed in combat with government troops in Nueva Ecija.
She came out and was forced to surrender in 1984 before the Marcos dictatorship was overthrown.
But she did not stop her advocacy. She was one of the founders of GABRIELA, a women’s organization that fought the Marcos dictatorship and advocated for women’s causes. After the EDSA revolution in 1986, she became a political, economic, and women's rights advocate.
She was the President of the political group MAKABAYAN and campaigned for their candidates in the last elections of 2010. She also ran in local elections in Manila Other partylist lawmakers also praised and eulogized Gomez after hearing news of her death.
She was once married to folk singer Heber Bartolome, with whom she had two children.
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