PHILIPPINES-CHILDREN: Epidemic of Child Sex Abuse

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Johanna Son

MANILA, Oct 4 1996 (IPS) - Few people know the real identity of 11-year- old ‘Vina’, but millions of Filipinos know her tragic story.

On Sep. 18, Vina filed criminal charges against a Filipino legislator who she says raped her eight times in June and July this year. Worse, the Grade Five student adds, she was offered to Romeo Jalosjos by her adoptive father in exchange for money.

Vina’s is the latest in the a string of high-profile cases of child sex abuse that have hogged newspaper headlines and TV broadcasts in the Philippines this year.

Other cases include a pastor who sexually molested his four young daughters, a grandfather who abused his three-year-old grandson, and a town mayor accused of raping a 16-year-old girl.

These indicate a rise in the number of abuse cases reported to authorities, though some officials and child experts say they could also signal an increase in child abuse itself–despite the fact that such offenses can merit the death penalty.

“Now more than at any time, we have broken the culture of silence,” Social Welfare Secretary Lina Laigo said recently.

Government statistics show that from 644 reported cases in 1991, child abuse cases rose to 1,644 in 1994 and 3,040 in 1995. As of March 1996, 1,057 cases were reported to the social welfare department.

The worrisome trend behind the numbers is that the bulk of child abuse cases are sexual offenses like rape and incest, most perpetrators are known to victim or even their kin and many crimes happened either in the homes of victims or offenders.

The statistics also show that though the sexual abuse of children is often associated with foreign pedophiles, Filipino offenders are no less vile.

Last month, Australian federal police officials who trained local policemen on investigating sexual assault said a misconception that all pedophiles are foreigners is the weak link in the Philippines’ anti-child abuse efforts.

“We taught them that pedophiles could be anyone. They could be women, they could be Filipinos,” said Juani O’ Reilly of the sexual assault and child abuse unit of the Australian police.

Of the 1995 cases of child abuse, 33 percent involved rape, 20.2 percent incest and 10 per cent, acts of lasciviousness. Victims are often 13 to 15 years old, and 96 percent are female.

Gloria Galvez of the Bureau of Women’s Welfare said: “Our concern now is the integrity and stability of our families is being undermined because of rising incidents of incest cases.”

Officials working with the child protection task force say some 80 percent of rape cases they handled in the last three years involved the victims’ fathers, stepfathers and relatives.

A study commissioned by the social welfare department said 91.2 percent of respondent rape victims knew their attackers, and 23 percent were violated by relatives.

The trend is such that the social welfare department, which has just launched a five-year campaign against child abuse, took out full-page ads in newspapers against sexual abuse of children.

Apart from listing hotlines to call, it carried tips ranging from how to spot signs of sexual abuse to ensuring that youngsters have, and learn to value, privacy.

Local studies say the typical child abuser is 36 years old, comes from a troubled family, has little or no education, unemployed, an alcoholic or drug dependent and is related or known to the victim.

Galvez says many incidents of child abuse have occurred in families where where mothers are normally away. Other experts add they have happened in cramped quarters where entire family sleeps together, as in the case of the pastor who abused his daughters.

Sociologist Ricardo Abad says at times the father is widowed, separated or unable to act on his desire for sexual conquests. “Sometimes the easiest victims are his daughters. It’s stupid, but the culture supports it,” he explained, stressing that incestuous rape cuts across social classes.

Others trace such crimes to the treatment of women and children as objects. Columnist Conrado de Quiros noted that in several recent cases, child victims were given as “gifts” to government officials, businessmen or policemen.

“Not all the laws prescribing death or dismemberment will stop the outrage so long as women of this country are seen this way,” he said. “That is a cure that will merely abet the disease. The disease goes deeper than AIDS, it destroys more totally than AIDS.”

Chelo Banal-Formoso, who interviewed ‘Vina’ for the ‘Philippine Daily Inquirer’ said the congressmen’s defense of Jalosjos reeked of insensitivity to child sexual abuse.

After weeks of hiding from public view, Jalosjos delivered a speech denouncing the rape charges as a political ploy and officials and prosecutors for “brainwashing” the victim. “Before God, my family and to you my colleagues, I say I have not committed any wrongdoing against any person,” he said.

Representative Jose Zubiri said: “Congressman Jalosjos had plenty of women in his life, but he would never touch an 11-year- old.”

“That remark not only suggests that Zubiri intimately knows Jalosjos’ sexual preferences but also sends the message that promiscuity is acceptable,” said Banal-Formoso. “If there was any doubt on anyone’s mind that rape is a gender issue, that one afternoon in Congress should have erased it.”

Having sexual relations with children below 12 years of age is statutory rape, even when no force or intimidation is used.

Legislators are waffling over a probe by the House ethics committee into the matter, while calls for Jalosjos to go on leave or quit remain unheeded. A brother of Jalosjos, who looks like him, now says he was the one who met the victim, raising suspicions they are trying to muddle the case.

But though media has put powerful offenders on the spot, not everyone is happy with its coverage of sexual crimes involving youngsters.

Newspapers like the ‘Inquirer’ have been accused of needlessly playing up explicit descriptions of sex offenses to boost sales, tabloids are a having a field day with rape cases and television footage has flashed child victims’ faces on screen.

The ‘Inquirer’s’ own interview with Vina, who was asked to describe her ordeal in detail, troubled social experts. No more interviews have since been allowed.

Stressed Laigo: “I am not happy, in fact I am upset with the way story was treated where the graphic details about the child’s case was published. These would have been better said in court.”

The sensationalism did not end with media, but was further fed by politicians like Senator Miriam Santiago who called for the castration of sex offenders. Another senator, Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, made the limp-wristed suggestion of forming a ‘new’ movement against sexual abuse.

Women activists are disappointed by the behavior of their elected women officials. Said Katrina Legarda, one of Vina’s counsels: “They don’t care — because children don’t vote.”