17th best place for women?

We do not know her but all of us in Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) feel so sad and outraged. Rape and murder victim 19-year old UPLB coed Given Grace Cebanico had a bright future—she was a DOST (Department of Science and Technology) scholar and was expected to graduate with honors. This was suddenly ended by a maniacal act. And this happened in supposedly the 17th best place in the world for women, as rated by Newsweek.

We are enraged. We want an immediate resolution to this case. We demand justice.

Given Grace is just one more face among the growing number of victims of violence against women and children.

CWR’s record shows a 47.74-percent increase in the incidence of violence against women and children—from 18,242 in 2009 to 26,951 in 2010. Reported cases of women and children victims of rape and incest have reached an alarming level—a total of 4,572 cases of rape were documented by the Women and Children Protection Center of the Philippine National Police in 2010 (a 13-percent increase from the 4,048 cases in 2009) and 19 of these were incestuous.

But rape and incest are not the only forms of violence committed against women and children. Approximately one woman is beaten by a partner or husband every 43 minutes, while one child is battered every hour and 20 minutes. A woman or child is harassed every four hours. There are 500,000 victims of prostitution in the Philippines and 100,000 of them are children. Eleven women die every day due to complications in childbirth. A million women cannot find work. In 2010, three women were murdered because of their political beliefs. Violence against women and children in all aspects occurs without let-up.

And our country is the 17th best place for women? As an institution for and by women, CWR strongly disagrees with this assessment. The Aquino administration has no comprehensive plan to develop the full potential of women and children. Instead, it boasts of a dole program like the Conditional Cash Transfer which is actually an $805-million loan from Asian Development Bank and World Bank, additional earning for these international financial institutions, another debt burden for us Filipinos.

So the accolade of having a gender-sensitive government is only new icing on an already stale cake. Women and children are not only the face of poverty; they are also the face of oppression and violence plaguing the country.

Given Grace is the latest victim of violence. Another woman or child will be the next in a few hours. Not just of rape but also of hunger, of oppression.  This is a signal for us women to join forces in denouncing the atrocities inflicted upon us. We should untiringly demand for our rights and welfare. We need political will for laws to serve their purpose. So long as government presents to us superficial programs, we should not give up.

—MARY JOAN GUAN,

executive director,

Center for Women’s Resources,

[email protected]