Mindanatoday.com | 36 women charge hubbies of abuse
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Thirty-six women who have long kept to themselves forms of violence have formally charged their abusers in judicial courts in Northern Mindanao, a regional social welfare official disclosed in a forum in Cagayan de Oro on Monday, November 28, this year.
“We encourage them (abused women) to file cases, but we don’t decide for them,” said Daisy Ramos, who heads the Department of Social and Development-10 Sectoral Unit. “Our mandate is to provide technical support to the vulnerable sector, and that includes women.”
DSWD-10 has been getting numerous complaints, including those rescued and sheltered in “center for women” but some would recant earlier statements and grant their abusers second chances.
She said that those who, for varied reasons, could not decide to end the cycle of violence would likely end up seeking their assistance again.
“Let’s prevent more violence, let’s prevent crimes,” was her urgent message to those who opt silence and inaction, amid eminent danger.
Cases of violence against women (VAW), nationwide, went up 200 percent at the height of pandemic (2020 and 2021), according to Ramos, attributing these to home restrictions and financial woes due to layoffs.
She said the 36 VAW cases that they are pursuing went through the usual process, that the victims underwent the process of having the incidents “for record purposes” were reported to the police.
For this year, cumulative figures from the Police Regional Office 10 (PRO-10) from January to November 24 showed a 9.7-percent reduction of cases on VAW for the same period in 2021.
In the same forum, Maj. Joann Navarro, PRO-10 spokesperson, reported that there was a variance of 73 (reduction) because there were 678 cases of VAW this year, compared to 751 last year (2021).
Navarro said that their data was collected by the Regional Women and Children Protection Desk pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children of 2004) and these were either physical harm, sexual violence, psychological harm, and economic abuse – or a combination thereof.
But the PRO-10 spokesperson did not provide details as to how many of these VAW complaints have been elevated to the judicial courts.
In response to a query if there are police personnel who were subjects of VAW complaints, she said PNP is not exempted from the law.
Navarro said there are police personnel who were subject of VAW cases — including those whose portions of their monthly pay have already been assigned to one’s spouse and children, including those out of wedlock.
Though figures from regional offices of DSWD and PNP differ, yet both forum guests observed that most VAW cases involve physical abuse, most victims are married, and they want to keep their families intact.
Ramos said that although as a social worker she would advised VAW victims to stand on their own and not dependent on another man, yet she maintained that marriage is still advisable for a healthy relationship and in building a family.
“But there is no excuse to violence,” she stressed.
Both DSWD-10 and PRO-10 are at the forefront in the annual campaign to end VAW, as provided for under Presidential Proclamation No. 1172 of 2006 – the “18-day Campaign to End Violence Against Women” from November 25 to December 12 of every year. (MT)
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