CHR to rape victims: Report as R1cases up

By Joanna P. Diaz-Sabado

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union -- Behind every physical abuse, acts of lasciviousness, child abuse or rape reported in the local police through their Women and Children Protection Desks (WCPD) are stories of these women victims or children victims traumatized. 

One may never know what they feel or how they go through with their lives especially if perpetuators are just around. Reported statistics in the Ilocos Region for January to October 2020 showed 71 cases of rape against women and 268 rape cases against children while physical abuse is at 231 for women and 123 for physical injuries against children. 

Capt. Monette Balderas of the WCPD of the Police Regional Office in the Ilocos bared these during a recent webinar initiated by the Region 1 Gender and Development Committee (RGADC).
    According to her, except for rape which occur mostly during the weekends, these crimes under violence against women and children know no time and day.

It is also a common knowledge that most vulnerable are the women and children who are poor.

Statistics of the Philippine National Police may be low this year compared to the same period of last year but the impositions due to varying levels of quarantine for the past months made both women and children more at risk from their perpetuators.

Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights encourages victims of violence against women and other gender-related violence to report.

Victim-survivors and any person or organization who has knowledge of any gender-based violence (GBV) incidents can report in the e-Report sa Gender Ombud portal: www.gbvcovid.report.

It is an online reporting GBV portal reporting during this period of community quarantine, an accessible platform to facilitate reporting, referral, response and documentation of GBV incidents. (JCR/AMB/JDS/PIA La Union)