Women’s Woes and the
Rape of ‘Nicole’
Evalyn Ursua, lawyer for Subic rape case
victim Nicole (not her real name), said that the case is special because
the accused are U.S. marines. While being the most controversial and
talked-about case, it is just one of the increasing number of violence
against women (VAW) cases reported in 2005.
By Eli Manalansan
Bulatlat
There is no justice unless the government
asserts custody of four accused Unites States marines, said Evalyn Ursua,
lawyer for the Subic rape victim.
The victim's lawyer in the celebrated
Subic rape case will insist on the arrest and imprisonment in a Philippine
jail of the four accused U.S. marines.
“We should get custody over the accused
since that is the rule under our own law notwithstanding a one-sided
executive agreement that is being used as an excuse by those charged (of
rape),” said Ursua in an interview with Bulatlat.
Ursua explained that the 1997 Anti-Rape
law explicitly orders the incarceration of accused rapists, even while the
case is being heard, and despite the U.S.-RP Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA),
which has impeded the serving of warrants of arrest against the suspects.
“Legal questions have been hurled whether
we should honor the VFA, which allows the U.S. government to take custody
of its military personnel criminally charged in the
Philippines.
I don't think we should,” said Ursua.
“Otherwise, we might not have justice at
all,” she added.
Ursua is convinced that based on evidences
gathered and the revised law on rape, there is sufficient basis to merit a
conviction of the four accused. She said the law sufficiently defines the
elements of the crime of rape and that all these elements are present in
the case against the four Americans criminally charged of raping ‘Nicole’
(an assumed name given by a feminist journalist).
But the law will be meaningless, she
warns, if the custody of the accused remains beyond the control of the
Philippine government, adding there is so much uncertainty in the case as
a result.
Special and anomalous
Ursua, a well-known feminist lawyer who
has already handled several rape cases, found the Subic rape case special.
She said because of the VFA, a “foreign element” has been added, which is
not present in other rape cases. But because of this, she also found the
special circumstances behind the rape of ‘Nicole’ “anomalous.”
“Normally, what the court would do is to
order the serving of the warrant of arrest, bring the accused to jail and
for the jailer to report to the court. In this case, that has not been
done, and that is anomalous,” said Ursua.
“We should not be allowing this to happen.
This is our court and our courts should be able to enforce our law. Rape
is rape, regardless of any special circumstance,” she stressed.
The arraignment of the four U.S. marines
was set on March 24 by Judge Renato Dilag of the Olongapo Regional Trial
Court.
The alleged rape of ‘Nicole’ that happened
Nov. 1 last year is the most controversial and talked-about case in the
list of continuing crimes of violence against women (VAW) documented by
the Philippine National Police (PNP). The PNP tallied a total of 1,121
rape cases in 2005.
Rape, VAW continues
Using the PNP data, the Center for Women’s
Resources (CWR) concluded that there is one woman being raped every hour,
being physically battered every three hours, and sexually harassed every
12 hours.
Compared to PNP statistics in 2004,
reported VAW incidents in 2005 slightly dipped. An article, which appeared
in the Philippine Daily Inquirer Nov. 29, 2005 attributed this to the
tendency of victims to keep silent. The article also stated that the dip
in cases reported may also be an indication of the public’s lack of
confidence in the country’s justice and law enforcement system, especially
with regards VAW cases. According to a CWR survey, most VAW victims prefer
to report to friends and women’s institutions rather than undergo
“gender-insensitive” interrogation by the police.
A total of 5,374 VAW cases happened in
2005, 96 percent of which occurred during the first nine months of the
year. More than 20 percent of these were rape cases, which ranks next to
wife battering and physical abuse in terms of the most number of cases.
This is despite a policy environment
generally not lacking in tools to protect women and children.
Despite pro-women laws
Ironic as it may seem, CWR studies
revealed that VAW incidents rose after the passage of Republic Act (R.A.)
9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act last March 8,
2004.
For the first time, battered women and
abused children are provided with a venue to sue and seek protection from
abusive and violent husbands or male partners, parents or guardians.
CWR documented 218 victims of VAW when the
law took into effect. But this number jumped to 924 in 2005 even as cases
of wife battering and physical injuries reported to the PNP dropped from
3,553 to 2,335.
Sexual harassment victims that sought the
help of Gabriela, a women’s group, increased to 34 in 2005 from 14 in
2004. The PNP report, however, indicated a decrease in the number of
incidents of sexual harassment and acts of lasciviousness from 633 in 2004
to 573 in 2005.
Nevertheless, women continue to be victims
of sexual harassment with more cases unreported. This is simply because
there is still no government agency monitoring the implementation of R.A.
7877 or the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law, 11 years after the law took into
effect on March 5, 1995. Moreover, the law confines its implementation in
places of work and learning or educational institutions.
Also, sexual offenders are not
significantly deterred with some convicted sexual harassers even getting
light penalties compared to those provided by law.
R.A. 7877 penalizes a convicted sexual
harasser with imprisonment from one to six months or a fine of P10,000 to
P20,000, or both. This penalty is lower than the maximum six years
imprisonment meted to a guilty party in an act of lasciviousness case.
Meanwhile, despite R.A. 9207 or the
Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, 155 Filipina victims of sex
trafficking sought refuge at the Department of Social Work and Development
last year.
Despite laws protecting women and
children, a wide gap separates declared policies to what is actually
happening to women and other vulnerable sectors in the country.
Regressing
“We have gained so much in terms of
policies, but in terms of application and the actual conditions of women,
we are not only lacking but regressing,” declared Ursua when asked to
assess the conditions of women vis-à-vis policies protecting women’s
rights.
“The system is still so caught up with a
culture that is so violent against women and, in general, women’s issues
are still trivialized,” Ursua said. She said human rights violations
against women continue and have worsened alongside the general political
and social crisis in the Philippines.
For the lawyer who has taken it upon
herself to seek justice for ‘Nicole’, pursuing the American marines
charged of rape is just another battle to challenge a system that
continues to violently trample on the rights of women, in particular, and
the Filipino people, in general. Bulatlat
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