EDITORIAL | Boorish

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Monday, May 29, 2017
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MANY raped women are brave enough to tell their stories despite the wave of social biases, sexism, stigma and discrimination. But many more are discouraged by the impunity that exists.

Rape is a heinous crime, never a laughing matter. It inflicts violence, humiliates and subjugates women into silence and submission. Rape, if resorted to by security forces, is even worse. During World War II it was used as a tool by the Japanese Imperial Army to terrorize women, children, families, and communities.

According to Tanggol Bayi, an association of women human rights defenders and a member organization of human rights alliance Karapatan, rape is a tool of war against women human rights defenders who fight back against state repression, poverty, injustice and intervention. It claims that rape has been in counterinsurgency manuals of the US and Philippine military, written or implied. 

Countless incidents of rape by military, paramilitary and police officers have been documented – before, during and after Marcos’ martial law, according to Karapatan. Under the previous Aquino administration, the human rights alliance recorded at least 12 rape cases by military personnel. Most perpetrators, if not all, have not been prosecuted, much less punished for these acts that violate human dignity, despite laws criminalizing rape, the Magna Carta of Women, and international instruments protecting women’s rights.

In his most recent rape joke before soldiers, is President Duterte preaching to a monstrous choir? Women, especially the poor who have been at the receiving end of such violence, are not laughing. The President has many women in his family – he has sisters, a common-law wife, daughters, grandchildren and nieces. What if people also joke about them being raped?

 

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