Many would think it is not a good idea, but a social worker who has extensively worked on violence against women and children cases aver: reporting the abuse to authorities always turn out to be good.
Office of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development (OPSWD) social worker Desiree Faith Lingo bared that while most of the physical, emotional and economic abuse get amicably settled, cases when the abuse gets reported results to a stoppage of the abuse.
Citing a certain case without naming the involved parties, Lingo said a perpetrator of a physical abuse, in a confrontation with authorities, said he has had enough learning that he could get to jail for hurting a woman.
In 2017, Bohol saw 20 cases of women physically abused, another 15 for psychological abuse and 14 for economic abuse.
The following have been identified as violations of Republic Act 9262 of the Anti-Violence against Women and the Children Act 2004.
RA 9262 defines physical abuse as inflicting physical harm to women while psychological abuses are acts or omissions of it causing mental, emotional suffering of the victims such as intimidation, harassment, stalking or damage to property.
It also includes public ridicule or humiliation, repeated verbal abuse, marital infidelity, including allowing the victim to witness physical, sexual or psychological abuse of a family member, forcing to witness pornography.
The same law defines economic abuse as acts that make or attempt to make a woman financially dependent which includes withdrawal of financial support, stopping the victim from engaging in a legitimate profession, business occupation, deprivation or threat of deprivation of financial resources, the right to enjoy conjugal property as well as controlling the victim’s money.
Bohol Provincial Police Office through Police Senior Inspector Nida Perocho reports 14 cases of economic abuse in 2017.
Beyond the violations of violence against women and children, there are also other that are indexed crimes like rape, incestuous rape, acts of lasciviousness, sexual harassment and bigamy.
The whole year, Bohol had 27 cases of rape, but of the cases filed, one particular case had 19 counts listed under one victim.
Bohol also had two cases of incestuous rape, four cases of sexual harassment and a case of bigamy.
Meanwhile, throughout the year, the OPSWD has not spotted to incorporate in their training and workshops issues of violence against women and children, to make sure everyone is properly informed of their rights and responsibilities.
This December 27, Capitol would be conducting a forum on violence against women and children and pornography, according to Lingo. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)