BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
FIRST, it was the children, a three-year old boy marked with bruises and signs of abuse.
Then, the eight-year old that he began to slap and kick and beat.
Then Lily, the 35-year old mother with five children, could not take it anymore. She and the children had endured his anger, shouting and cursing and emotional and physical violence for so long from her live-in partner that finally she took a stand and spoke out and got protection from his violent attacks.
Most victims of such violence never report it to authorities. Lily was once an intimidated and frightened woman who took the beating herself and endured his violence then decided to change her world and fight back legally if the prosecutor will agree with her complaint.
Maria, 13 years old, was violently raped by her father but she and her mother stood together and fought back and with the help of the Preda Center, Maria was empowered and with support of her mother and Preda filed charges against her father and has strongly and clearly testified.
He is facing four counts of rape and will likely be convicted. In the Philippines, women legislators worked hard and lobbied for the passage of a new law in 2022 making the age of sexual consent 16 (up from 12) and now sexual intercourse with a child below 16 will be statutory rape.
Recently, female child victims of sexual violence, assisted by Preda, won four convictions in the past two months against a trafficker and child abusers. Three were sentenced to life in prison and one got 12 years. The Preda children that fight back for justice win an average of 15 to 16 convictions of their abusers every year, a strong message that such crimes will not be tolerated.
There is hope that women and children victim/survivors of violence and sexual abuse can change their world by standing up and fighting back for justice.
The #MeToo movement gave hope and a greater chance for women and children to fight back by bringing their abusers to justice. A brave American woman, Jean Carroll, is bringing her cases of rape and defamation against Donald Trump in a New York courtroom. He, the former president of the United States, denies he ever did it.
She is fighting back and says 23 year ago he did it to her in a New York department store. She bravely and courageously pursues justice saying that Trump lied about attacking her and “smeared her integrity, honesty, and dignity” and inventing a “swarm of related lies” claiming that she is telling lies. Several other women have made claims of sexual misconduct against Trump. All people must stand and support the women and children that are victims of violence.
The UN research says that 736 million women “have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their life (30 per cent of women aged 15 and older)”. That figure, like the sexual abuse of children, is one in every three are victims of abuse. (To be continued)/PN
