CWR alarmed over increasing numbers of sexual abuses vs Pinays

“The high number of state-perpetrated violence against women is very alarming. It only reflects how abusive the authorities have become under a regime that sends signal of impunity to its armed forces and blatantly disregards women’s human rights,” CWR executive director Jojo Guan said. (Pixabay photo)

The Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) on Monday, July 9, was alarmed over the increasing number of sexual abuses against Filipino women in which 33 cops were tagged as perpetrators of this crime.

From January 2017 to July 2018, the research and training institution has already documented 13 cases of abuse — eight cases of rape, three cases of acts of lasciviousness, one case of harassment, and one case of physical assault.

“The high number of state-perpetrated violence against women is very alarming. It only reflects how abusive the authorities have become under a regime that sends signal of impunity to its armed forces and blatantly disregards women’s human rights,” CWR executive director Jojo Guan said.

Guan noted that out of the 13 documented cases, seven or more than half of it are linked to President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-illegal drugs campaign — either the abuse was done during a drug operation or the victim was a female drug suspect.

Among these cases were two female inmates from Olongapo City and Hagonoy in Bulacan who were charged with illegal possession of firearms and raped while in detention

“War on drugs becomes an excuse for sexual abuse,” the director said.

“It is contemptible that the Philippine National Police (PNP) has cited the prevalence of rape as an alibi to continue the war on drugs, only to find out that police officers themselves are raping women and contribute to the rising number of rape cases in the country,” she added.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) earlier claimed that the number of rape cases has dropped since Duterte implemented his war on drugs in the country.

But for Guan, this campaign did not help the Philippines resolve its problem on drug addiction and other crimes.

“It is a war waged against the poor and the marginalized. It gave the authorities the license to kill and abuse people, especially women and children,” she stressed.

In a previous report by Rappler, there was a total of 100,668 index crime cases recorded from January to November 2017, which represents a 21.8 percent drop from the recorded incidents in 2016.