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Johanna M. Sampan
Manila Times

PLAN—an international, humanitarian, child-centered development organization without religious, political or governmental affiliation or leanings started operating in Pilar Island, a part of the Camotes Group of Islands in Cebu City in 2000.

Besides promoting the welfare of children, Plan Philippines together with the local government of Pilar and Lihok Pilipina, Inc. (LPI)—a Cebu based NGO recently took the task of educating the island’s residents on the issue of domestic violence. The project was coined Bantay Banay (literally means “family watch”).

Besides educating communities on the issue of domestic violence, Bantay Banay as a watch group actually responds to actual cases of abuse. To help victims, the group provides medical and medico-legal assistance, counseling, legal advice, temporary shelter and livelihood referral.

The volunteer workers of the organization are composed of professionals sympathetic to victims of beatings, rape, incest and other forms of violence. They are trained to provide intervention to the cycle of abuse through family dialogues and mediation on the barangay level.

“We would like to shatter the misconception that “family quarrel is a private matter,” Dr. Eugenia Maratas, M.D., vice chairman of Bantay Banay relates, adding, “We want the family members especially the wives to be truthful and open about it, to notify us if there’s really a case of violence within the family.”

Bantay Banay is currently working on safeguard measures to ensure the continuity of the project in case of change of leadership in the barangays.

Dolita Dales, chairman of Bantay Banay, envisions that through the project, the sanctity of the family would be safeguarded. She’s also keen on empowering the women of Pilar too. “For women, we hope to help them more in building their confidence by allowing them in greater participation in decision making within the households and community,” she concludes. For details, visit www.plan-international.org.

Jomar Canlas
Manila Times

IN giving more support and protection for battered wo­men and children, the Supreme Court gave due course for the prayer exempting battered women and children from payment of increased filing fees.

The local government of Quezon City made the said request after their passage of Resolution SP 3756, Series of 2007 exempting battered wo­men from payment of docket fees hike.

Eugenio Y. Jurilla, city secretary of Quezon City, sent the letter to the Court and the copy of their resolution was attached.

The plea was made to the Court since the requirement of exorbitant court fees defeats the good intention of Republic Act 9262, the Law on Violence of Against Women and Children.

A one-page resolution was immediately issued by the Court en banc taking note of the prayer made by the City Council which shall be subjected to future deliberations and justices’ consideration.

The increase of the docket fees for litigants was implemented during the tenure of then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. to augment the expenditures for the judiciary.

The Supreme Court ordered all lower courts in the country to fully implement the exemption from payment of docket and other fees of all Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) litigants and clients.

The Court made its immediate response to the letter of Persida Rueda-Acosta, PAO chief, dated April 24, 2007, in view of the implementation of Republic Act 9406, the Act Reorganizing and Strengthening the Public Attorney’s Office.

The said amendment to the PAO charter must be disseminated to all courts nationwide by mandating the Office of the Court Administrator, the Office of the Clerk of Court and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. The PAO specifically cited Section 16-D of the said law for the exemption from fees and costs of the suit.

Luige del Puerto
Inquirer

THE CASES of violence against women (VAW) such as wife battery and sexual abuse have decreased in the last three years, according to police statistics.
VAW incidents reported to the police during the first three quarters of 2005 numbered 5,146, lower by 7.6 percent compared to the same period in 2004, and lower by 20.2 percent compared to the same period in 2003.

“There is a need to determine the real causes for this decline. During the last 10 to 12 years, from 1991 to 2003, the number of VAW cases rose,” said Superintendent Ildebrandi Usana, head of the Philippine National Police-Juvenile and Gender Sensitivity Division.

Usana said the number of abused women could be higher but they were unreported. Studies showed that women preferred to keep quiet about their ordeal because of the humiliation and the belief that this would cause more problems for the family.

The officer listed down three reasons that could explain the recent statistics:

* The passage of Republic Act No. 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act last year;

* The aggressive campaign by government and private groups to raise awareness about VAW and to educate women about their rights and what they could do to protect themselves.

* The unwillingness of victims to report their abusive partners because victims don’t want their partners to end up in jail.

“Based on our experience, many women just want to give their partners a lesson,” Usana said. “This could be why they do not want to report. Remember, the intention of the law is to provide heavier penalties so that VAW does not happen.”

Victims also didn’t want their partners locked up for a long period because of its possible effects on the family, the children in particular, Usana added.

Police statistics showed that of the 5,146 cases reported during the first nine months of 2005, 35.64 percent involved physical injuries or wife battery and 16.40 percent involved cases of rape and attempted rape.

One in every 13 cases involved acts of lasciviousness. Less than one percent accounted for sexual harassment, according to statistics.

There were 5,563 VAW cases reported to the police in 2004 and 6,447 cases in 2003, the same statistics showed.

Last week, the FJGSD presented a study showing that up to 16 percent of women police officers had been physically abused by their partners at one time or another during the last 10 years.

The Philippine Star

The Civil Service Commission granted yesterday a paid 10-day leave privilege to female state workers who are victims of violence.

Resolution No. 051206, which takes effect on Oct. 30, also granted the same privilege to female employees who have children that are victims of violence. The children should be below 18 years old or above 18 but are not capable of taking care of themselves because of physical disability or mental retardation.

The CSC said the privilege applies to female government workers regardless of status.

According to the CSC, violence against women and their children refers to any act or series of acts committed by a man against his wife, former wife, or against women with whom he has had a sexual relationship, or with whom he has a common child. The act could also be against her child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, committed within or outside the family abode, which result in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological or economic abuse including threats, assault, coercion, harassment or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

The 10-day leave may be availed of in a continuous or intermittent manner to enable the employee to attend to medical and legal concerns.

The resolution provides that women employees may apply for the 10-day leave before the actual leave of absence or immediately upon return from such leave.

The leave application, however, must be accompanied by any of the following supporting documents: a Barangay Protection Order (BPO) obtained from the barangay or a temporary or permanent order (TPO/PPO) from the court.

If the protection order is not yet issued, a certification issued by the barangay chairman, councilman, prosecutor or clerk of court that an application for BPO, TPO or PPO has been filed can be presented.

In the absence of a certification, a police report specifying the details of the violence inflicted on the victim together with the medical certificate is accepted.

CSC said the 10-day leave is non-cumulative and not convertible to cash, which means that leaves not taken are deemed waived. — Sheila Crisostomo

Domini M. Torrevillas
The Philippine Star

An organization that has been working for wo-men’s rights and welfare is the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), which was formed at the turn of the century for the purpose of giving shelter to young women living in the city of Manila. The Y, managed by volunteer professionals, executives and housewives, now counts thousands of members in 26 chapters around the country. Its wholesome activities include inspirational meetings and lectures on global and national concerns and recreational activities for families.

The global and local affairs committee has been planning forthcoming activities – a Joint YMCA-YWCA World Week of Prayer and World Fellowship (November 14-20), 16 days of activism (November 25-December 10); World AIDS Day (December 1), and Human Rights Day (December 10).

Steeped in the preparations are former DSWD Secretary Corazon Alma de Leon and Lourdes Casas Quezon, chair and co-chair, respectively, of the global and local affairs committee; Dr. Josefina D. Pineda, national president; Ma. Virginia L. Sadora, national executive director; Neriza B. Llena, national program officer, and Phoebe Sara U. Cortez

To know what human rights are all about – prior to sponsoring Human Rights Day in December __ the global and local affairs committee – invited Human Rights Commissioner Puring Quisumbing to talk about the human rights situation in the country.

To her credit, instead of angrily ticking off the numbers of people killed whose rights had been violated, Dr. Quisumbing spoke on what constitutes human rights at a round-table discussion. What she said could form a primer that the committee can distribute on Human Rights Day.

First, she said human rights are rights natural to human persons; these are not given by law, so no law can take them away from any person.

Human rights are classified into civil rights, political rights,, economic rights (right to food and water, for instance), social rights (to education, among others), and cultural rights (such as those enjoyed by indigenous people.

All these rights are universal (for all persons), indivisible (one kind of right cannot hold in suspension another rights; one can’t enjoy one right without the other), and inter-related (one right will support the other).

There is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, she said, is not law, but is “so morally powerful that it is law.” To elaborate, the Declaration holds peoples of the world to agree on the common standards that are applied towards the preservation of the dignity of the human person.

In connection with the Universal Declaration, six conventions/covenants have been adopted and ratified by governments of member countries of the United Nations, including the Philippine government.

These are the covenants of civil and political rights, and economic/social/cultural rights; the conventions on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW), the rights of the child (CRCC), against torture and cruel and inhuman treatment, and on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (CERD). Not yet ratified is the convention of the rights of migrant workers and their families, and the convention on the rights of disabled persons.

The Philippine government has been active in promoting the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women. It has passed the Anti-Trafficking Law, and the Violence Against Women (VAW) law.

The enthusiastic listeners perked up even more when Dr. Quisumbing talked on battered women’s rights. It’s taken long for the Supreme Court to make a ruling on the battered wife’s use of self-defense as reason for her killing of her husband, but that’s because, the High Tribunal, she said, is “conservative.” It has a rule on maintaining stability, “so people will trust continuity.”

In making rulings on a wife’s killing her spouse, the court has been using the elements of immediate response (i.e. the wife kills the husband not premeditatively), and proportionality (if the wife has been constantly battered with a chair, the wife’s shooting him with a gun is not proportional to the crime committed).

To explain further, Dr. Quisumbing said the elements of immediacy and propor-tionately cannot be equated with the battered wife syndrome, which has the wife reacting to her being physically maltreated after a long delay. Thus the Supreme Court has ruled that delayed reaction does not justify the cutting off of Bobbit’s peter.

The Genosa Doctrine was brought up. This had to do with a woman’s killing of her husband with a gun while the husband was asleep. The defense was that she was a battered wife, her evidence being the reports of the doctor to whom she had gone after every mauling session. She was convicted by the lower court, but the case was elevated to the Supreme Court.

Lawyer Katrina Legarda was told the High tribunal would not hold a trial, but Legarda filed an omnibus motion, saying the justices should look at the law in other countries which defined the battered wife syndrome as a condition in which the wife’s defending herself is a psychological condition, in which case the element of immediacy and proportionality do not apply.

The Supreme Court, said Dr. Quisumbing, accepted Legarda’s brief, but, Justice Artemio Panganiban said that while the Court accepted the battered wife syndrome, the case had to be remanded to the trial court which would determine if Genosa did suffer from the battered wife syndrome. Unfortunately, in the Philippines, there are not too many psychology experts who could show that the battered wife syndrome does indeed exist in the Genosa case, said Dr. Quisumbing.

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E-mail: dominimt2000@yahoo.com