Physical and sexual abuse committed against women and children reported to the police contracted 98.6 percent in 2022, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The data showed only a total of 136 cases were reported to the Philippine National Police (PNP) as of January 31, 2023 from the 9,386 reported in 2021.
These are cases that violated Republic Act 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004. Acts of violence under this law include physical, sexual, psychological, and economic.
The law seeks to address the prevalence of abuse of women and children by their intimate partners like their husband or ex-husband, live-in partner or former live-in partner, boyfriend/girlfriend or ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend, dating partner or former dating partner.
These cases along with other abuse cases contracted 69 percent to 4,282 cases reported to the PNP in 2022 from 13,831 cases in 2021.
These other cases include rape. The PSA reported that there was also an 8.3 contraction in the number of rape complaints filed with the police.
The data showed there were 1,667 rape cases filed in 2022, lower than the 1,818 cases filed in 2021. There were no attempted rape and incestuous rape cases filed.
Further, PSA data showed acts of lasciviousness cases also saw a decline at 0.8 percent to 1,612 cases in 2022 from 1,625 cases in 2021.
However, there was a 15.6 percent increase in other abuse cases reported to the PNP. There were 867 other cases reported in 2022, higher than the 750 cases filed.
LGBTQI persecution
Meanwhile, United Nations Population Fund Executive Director Natalia Kanem recently issued a statement on the increase in attempted criminalization of homosexuality.
Kanem said attempts to criminalize same-sex relationships in some parts of the world, exposing millions of individuals to the risk of arrest, imprisonment or even death.
She said the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) people is a breach of their right to freedom of expression, to liberty, privacy and equality, to freedom from violence, discrimination and inhuman and degrading treatment, and to a fair trial.
“The oppression of LGBTQI people worldwide directly contravenes UNFPA’s mission of achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health and realizing the rights of all people,” Kanem said.
“It leads to devastating public health consequences by effectively severing equitable access to life-saving services, raising stigma and discrimination, in particular for people living with HIV, thereby undermining efforts in controlling the HIV epidemic,” she added.
Kanem also said this breach in the human rights of LGBTQI people also endangers the lives of those who help uphold these rights such as health workers, lawyers, journalists and humanitarian sector workers.
However, Kanem said the UNFPA would continue to tackle the violence, discrimination and exclusion faced by the LGBTQI community. -30-
