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Laws for women not guarantee of justice — GWP Rep. Maza

Though these are fruits of people’s struggle

BAGUIO CITY (Dec. 10) — A woman from the upper class named Melissa Martel was shot by her husband on the stomach. She bled profusely, her life much threatened.

She survived and filed a case and applied for Protection Order (PO) – a government service to protect women and children victims from their abusers – from the lower court, which then granted her request. But the perpetrator-husband filed a motion for reconsideration at the Supreme Court. The decision: PO is not obligatory.

Martel’s story is just among the many cases of violence against women dismissed by the courts. This, despite the passage of landmark legislations to protect women from different forms of violence, the latest of which is the Republic Act 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children (Anti-VAWC) Act passed in March this year.

In a forum here, Gabriela Women’s Partylist (GWP) Rep. Liza Maza said that RA 9262 – which GWP co-authored – is a legislative advancement for women’s rights but it does not guarantee a decrease in the number of cases of violence against women and children.

Martel’s case was dismissed despite her upper economic status – a fact that, Maza said, proves lesser chances of justice for poor women. This is because “justice could be bought in our present system,” Maza added.

However, despite the flaws, the Anti-VAWC had set provisions that are helpful to the victims, some of which are the PO, the recognition of the “battered woman syndrome” or the psychological effect of abuse, priority for the custody of children, and the rehabilitation of the perpetrator.

The said law had also criminalized violence against women and children. This means that a woman or child who suffered either physical, sexual, psychological, or economic abuse could file a case directly to the courts.

The criminalization of such offenses also put irrelevance to the chastity of the victim. This is in the context of the recognition of the human rights of the victim… chaste or unchaste, prostituted or not, Maza declared.

Although justice is not guaranteed in the present justice system, Maza said these legislative advances could at least set which behaviors towards women and children are acceptable and not.

Aside from Anti-VAWC, four other laws were also passed to protect women’s rights, namely Women in Nation-Building Act, Sexual Harassment Law, Anti-Rape Law, and Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.

GWP believes that however small the gains are, such legislative advancements were made possible by the people’s movement. # Milena E. Roque for NORDIS

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