EVERY day two women get harassed sexually or physically in Manila alone, Senator Risa Hontiveros, head of the Senate committee on women, said Tuesday citing police reports.
“So in a week, the number of women who get harassed and abused is 14,” Hontiveros said.
“If we multiply that number by months and even an entire year, we will arrive at a very alarming and nightmarish statistic.”
Hontiveros, citing data from the Manila Police District, said the forms of harassment reported included sexual harassment, acts of lasciviousness, rape and violence.
She said most of the harassments were happening after office hours and during unholy hours, but the reported cases do not include other forms of gender-based harassment and abuse that do not fall under existing laws.
”I believe that our police force is doing its best to protect our women,” Hontiveros said.
“But because there is no existing national policy that identifies other forms of gender-based street harassment that will aid our authorities in preventing abuses, the number can actually be higher.”
Hontiveros is pushing for the passage of Senate Bill 1326 or the proposed Safe Streets and Public Spaces Act of 2017.
The measure aims to penalize the harassment of women in public places such as catcalling, wolf-whistling, cursing, leering, groping, persistent requests for names and contact details.
The bill also seeks to penalize the use of words tending to ridicule women on the basis of actual or perceived sex, gender expression or sexual orientation and identity including sexist, homophobic and transphobic slurs.
“[President Rodrigo] Duterte’s words normalized and reinforced the climate of sexism,” Hontiveros said.
She said Duterte’s remarks against women had also contributed to the culture of sexism, gender discrimination and even violence against women.
She said her office had monitored 23 instances in which Duterte, as President, made remarks against women.
Those includes the President’s threat to show Senator Leila de Lima’s fake sex video, his statement reducing Vice President Leni Robredo to “a pair of nice knees,” his rape joke in front of the military, and recently, his order to soldiers to shoot female rebels in the vagina.
“Based on our monitoring, President Duterte is averaging one sexist remark a month. This is unacceptable,” Hontiveros said.
“His words normalize and reinforce the climate of sexism and misogyny in the country”•similar to how the President’s words inspired and encouraged the wave of killings in the country. His anti-women statements have propelled unprecedented attacks against women.”