14 women, kids raped, battered daily — CWR

On the average, 14 women and children are being raped and battered daily or one in almost a couple of hours. Five women or children get sexually harassed everyday or one in every five hours. Six children receive punches each day or one in every four hours.

Such figures of violence from the Philippine National Police may rate in soaps or movies, but are disturbing in real life, a research and training institute for women said.

According to the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), cases of rape, acts of lasciviousness, wife and child battery continue to rise.

The total cases of rape in 2002 reached 4,964, with children accounting for 72 percent of the victims.

The cases of wife battery totaled 5,058, an increase of 10.5 percent from 2001.

The CWR said violence against women and children remains because of poverty, traditional feudal-patriarchal orientation, and the various loopholes among existing gender laws that are supposedly promulgated to protect them.

"With less food on the table and no jobs to fall back on, spouses argue, often leading to fatal domestic abuse. This may be a classic tale that sells in soap operas or movies but is disturbing in real life," Gertrudes Ranjo-Libang, CWR executive director, said.

Libang added that abuses against women and children remain because of the conventional feudal and patriarchal view of society. "As long as the views on women and children remain as properties that could be at the disposal of the patriarch’s whim, respect for them as persons stays nil," she said.

The CWR cited laws like the Anti-Rape Law or Republic Act 8353 that reportedly contain loopholes that need to be revised.

"One basic flaw of RA 8353 is that it fails to recognize other sexual abusive acts as rape unless there is penetration. It even allows the case to be dismissed when the rapist offers marriage to the victim. This not only discards the gravity of the crime but helps perpetuate abuses against other women," Libang said.