Child, woman raped every hour - PCW
As the country celebrates the National Women’s Month, the Philippine Commission on Women said a child or a woman is being raped almost every hour.
Citing the 2018 data, PCW said that 23 children or women had been raped everyday.
Common abuses such as physical, emotional and economic abuse were experienced by women every 20 minutes, it said. Economic abuse means the husband is not providing for the family.
“Now that its Women’s Month, we hope they (women) have courage to report this kind of incident,” PCW Executive Director Emmeline Verzosa said in a television interview.
Though there was a decrease in the number of abused women and children for 2018, Verzosa said they have to conduct more research to determine if the decline means the abuse was “not happening” or the incidents actually fell.
For 2018, PCW recorded a total of 34,682 abuses, lower than the 46,453 cases in 2017.
One of the reasons being considered why victims were not reporting their experience was the fear from public opinion.
According to the Philippine National Police data, from July 2017 to June 2018, they were able to record a total of 6,999 rape cases.
Latest reported abuse is in Dumanjug, Cebu City where a priest molested a 17-year old girl who served in the town’s church.
According to Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, the priest was relieved but authorities did not give the whereabouts of the suspect.
Last Saturday, President Rodrigo Duterte advised women to “stay away” from priests.
“The women should refrain from going near the priests because when you are near him, he will just smell the scent of your body. And if he corners you in the church, you’re in trouble, he will court you. Do you know why? It’s because he is a man," Duterte said in his speech during a ceremony in Sagay, Negros Occidental.
"God gave him a penis. What will they do with that? Will they slap it against the door every morning? God was the one who made a mistake there, not us. He created paradise. He created Adam. That would have sufficed already because there was man. Or he could have added more men so that they’ll just kill each other if they don’t agree on what to do," he added.
But women’s right group Gabriela did not buy Duterte's advice and it even criticized him.
"Why would women take an advice from a self-confessed womanizer and serial misogynist?" Gabriela Women's Party Representative Emmi De Jesus and Arlene Brosas said in a statement.
"The macho-fascist president would be the last person who could give decent advice on how women can stay away from or fight abuse," they added.
The officials vowed to make perpetrators of abuses accountable whether they are officials from the Church, police, military or other government agencies, including the president. Ella Dionisio/DMS
