Family Matters / Concerns / Assist – Social Welfare Office Coordination
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDRENAt Spotted Assist Global Pinoy (SAGiP) our mission is to help achieve a peaceful, harmonious and progressive Philippines, and that starts with the family – the basic unit of society. A fractured family injures the children more so in so many ways. If we are to achieve a safe, healthy and caring society, then we start with the family, especially the women and their children whom of which are the most vulnerable.
Spotted Assist Global Pinoy (SAGiP) will help rescue the women and children suffering violence and abuse against their persons as defined by law.
“Violence against women (VAW) appears as one of the country’s pervasive social problems. According to the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority, one in four Filipino women age 15-49 has experienced physical, emotional or sexual violence by their husband or partner. It is indeed alarming that despite efforts to address the concern, VAWC persists”.
“Republic Act 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004, VAW is any act or a series of acts committed by any person against a woman who is his wife, former wife, or against a woman with whom the person has or had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a common child, or against her child whether legitimate or illegitimate, with or without the family abode, which result in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering, or economic abuse including threats of such acts, battery, assault, coercion, harassment or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”
A somber reminder of a problem often hidden until sometimes exposed when it is too late…
“VAWC includes, but not limited to, the following acts:
• Physical violence or the act that includes bodily or physical harm
• Sexual violence or the act that is sexual in nature, committed against a woman or her child
• Psychological violence or the act or omission that causes or likely to cause mental or emotional suffering of the victim.
• Economic abuse or the act that makes or attempts to make a woman financially dependent”.
Most cases of violence against women often go unreported due to women victims’ “culture of silence” or are forced to swallow and accept it as part of the absurdity of women’s inferiority or servitude to their husbands.
Furthermore, reporting the violence to the authorities will only bring shame to the family and entails costly litigation. Of course this is still done under the threat of even more violence against women and their children hence the eventuality of less cases being reported.