Domestic abuse victims get help

Second of two parts

VICTIMS of domestic abuse and violence can get help.

The Coalition Against Trafficking Women–Asia Pacific (CATW–AP) and the Women's Rights Action and Advocacy Project recently held a capacity-building program in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, helping to build skills and knowledge among local government frontliners, including 40 village officials working as VAW desk officers and 100 other women from the community. The program participants were briefed on women's rights, laws and survivor-centered responses, and this led to the creation of three ordinances strengthening the work on VAW.

"CATW-AP prioritizes communities that are considered to be hotspots of trafficking and other forms of violence, including intimate partner violence or domestic abuse, rape, and others. These would include communities with climate crisis refugees following disasters, communities where extrajudicial killings happened, [and] both rural and urban poor. We engage local governments that have the political will to integrate violence against women in its work," said Jean Enriquez, executive director of CATW-AP.

"Foremost in the programs would be building the capacities of the local governments and communities in responding to cases of all forms of violence against women in a gender-responsive and survivor-centered manner. Additionally, we assist in establishing or strengthening protection mechanisms and building gender-based violence watch groups. CATW-AP modeled the best practice of establishing 'bantay-bugaw' mechanisms in trafficking hotspots, which empowers communities and strengthens inter-agency cooperation," Enriquez said.

Their capacity-building programs take into account cultural contexts. Typically, in the country, patriarchal culture still prevails, but it has permutations in different communities. The organization adjusted the modules to be more relevant to Muslims, Indigenous and other communities. The modules further apply to most participants, including teachers, young men, old men, community women and girls. They also conduct baseline data-gathering to understand the challenges in various communities, such as the culture of silence that keeps abuse victims from seeking help. They address the impact of this culture on the behavior of victims and their mental health, as well as their right to security and life.

CATW-AP closely coordinates with the Philippine Commission on Women, the acting secretariat of the Inter-Agency Council on Violence Against Women and their Children, on various aspects of intervention and also maximizes them as resource persons on the referral system.

Gaps in services

Marita, a survivor of domestic abuse and violence, told The Manila Times that there is still a lack of support from the authorities. She urges other women who are victims of abuse not to be afraid to seek help early on from the barangay so others will not undergo the same thing she went through. She also sees having open communication lines is crucial in marriage.

Eizaleen Fusingan-Lappay, a psychologist at MindNation, a Singapore-based mental health and well-being company that provides online services to support communities and organizations, said the collaboration among all the professionals is crucial to provide holistic support for the victims for proper intervention and post-intervention process as they reintegrate themselves back into their community.

Enriquez said barangay (villages) and local government responders, especially the police, need further understanding of their accountability when they act as mediators between the victims and their abusers instead of facilitating protection orders to be served to abusers or filing charges against the abusers.

"Livelihood, counseling, and other assistance need to be strengthened as well with the view of empowering victims-survivors of intimate partner violence and other forms of VAW," Enriquez said.

She added there is still a lack of victim-centered consciousness among responders to prioritize the well-being of victims and survivors. The local governments from the city, municipal and barangay levels also need to use the 5 percent Gender and Development (GAD) budget for gender equality and women's empowerment. This should also cover the assistance to survivors and the strengthening of VAW Desks.

The GAD budget policy was introduced through the General Appropriations Act (GAA) in 1995 as "The Women's Budget" to support with actual resources the implementation of programs and projects on the ground, which focuses on gender advocacy and commitment to women's empowerment.

Moreover, Lappay said there is still a need to better monitor programs for the victims of abuse in the country.

"We need to establish more programs with monitoring of how well we are doing in the intervention process. We may have data related to the cases of domestic violence, but we do not have any data on the current programs or interventions and their 'effectiveness,' or this may not be available for public viewing; maybe consider looking into DSWD data to answer this," she said, referring to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

There are plenty of obstacles in dealing with domestic abuse cases in the Philippines. Enriquez cited a prevalence of victim blaming; a lack of understanding of the continuum of violence against women, including rape and prostitution. There is still a lack of understanding among law enforcers and responders (barangay officials) of the law.

"Thus, victims seeking redress are not given the protection orders that should be made known to them. Sometimes, responders mediate and conciliate between victims and abusers, acts that are against the law," she said.

Despite the progress made, there is still more that needs to be done to address the abuses towards women, the experts agreed. Many victims are still afraid to speak up, fight back and seek help due to shame and fear. Only when they overcome these fears can victims of domestic abuse and violence recover, heal, and reintegrate themselves back into society.