Women’s Woes and the Rape of ‘Nicole’

Evalyn Ursua, lawyer for Subic rape case victim Nicole (not her real name), said that the case is special because the accused are U.S. marines. While being the most controversial and talked-about case, it is just one of the increasing number of violence against women (VAW) cases reported in 2005.

By Eli Manalansan
Bulatlat 

There is no justice unless the government asserts custody of four accused Unites States marines, said Evalyn Ursua, lawyer for the Subic rape victim.

The victim's lawyer in the celebrated Subic rape case will insist on the arrest and imprisonment in a Philippine jail of the four accused U.S. marines.

“We should get custody over the accused since that is the rule under our own law notwithstanding a one-sided executive agreement that is being used as an excuse by those charged (of rape),” said Ursua in an interview with Bulatlat.

Ursua explained that the 1997 Anti-Rape law explicitly orders the incarceration of accused rapists, even while the case is being heard, and despite the U.S.-RP Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which has impeded the serving of warrants of arrest against the suspects.

“Legal questions have been hurled whether we should honor the VFA, which allows the U.S. government to take custody of its military personnel criminally charged in the Philippines. I don't think we should,” said Ursua.

“Otherwise, we might not have justice at all,” she added.  

Ursua is convinced that based on evidences gathered and the revised law on rape, there is sufficient basis to merit a conviction of the four accused. She said the law sufficiently defines the elements of the crime of rape and that all these elements are present in the case against the four Americans criminally charged of raping ‘Nicole’ (an assumed name given by a feminist journalist).

But the law will be meaningless, she warns, if the custody of the accused remains beyond the control of the Philippine government, adding there is so much uncertainty in the case as a result.

Special and anomalous

Ursua, a well-known feminist lawyer who has already handled several rape cases, found the Subic rape case special. She said because of the VFA, a “foreign element” has been added, which is not present in other rape cases. But because of this, she also found the special circumstances behind the rape of ‘Nicole’ “anomalous.”

“Normally, what the court would do is to order the serving of the warrant of arrest, bring the accused to jail and for the jailer to report to the court. In this case, that has not been done, and that is anomalous,” said Ursua.

“We should not be allowing this to happen. This is our court and our courts should be able to enforce our law. Rape is rape, regardless of any special circumstance,” she stressed.

The arraignment of the four U.S. marines was set on March 24 by Judge Renato Dilag of the Olongapo Regional Trial Court. 

The alleged rape of ‘Nicole’ that happened Nov. 1 last year is the most controversial and talked-about case in the list of continuing crimes of violence against women (VAW) documented by the Philippine National Police (PNP).  The PNP tallied a total of 1,121 rape cases in 2005.

Rape, VAW continues

Using the PNP data, the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) concluded that there is one woman being raped every hour, being physically battered every three hours, and sexually harassed every 12 hours.

Compared to PNP statistics in 2004, reported VAW incidents in 2005 slightly dipped. An article, which appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer Nov. 29, 2005 attributed this to the tendency of victims to keep silent.   The article also stated that the dip in cases reported may also be an indication of the public’s lack of confidence in the country’s justice and law enforcement system, especially with regards VAW cases. According to a CWR survey, most VAW victims prefer to report to friends and women’s institutions rather than undergo “gender-insensitive” interrogation by the police.

A total of 5,374 VAW cases happened in 2005, 96 percent of which occurred during the first nine months of the year. More than 20 percent of these were rape cases, which ranks next to wife battering and physical abuse in terms of the most number of cases.

This is despite a policy environment generally not lacking in tools to protect women and children.

Despite pro-women laws

Ironic as it may seem, CWR studies revealed that VAW incidents rose after the passage of Republic Act (R.A.) 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act last March 8, 2004.

For the first time, battered women and abused children are provided with a venue to sue and seek protection from abusive and violent husbands or male partners, parents or guardians.

CWR documented 218 victims of VAW when the law took into effect. But this number jumped to 924 in 2005 even as cases of wife battering and physical injuries reported to the PNP dropped from 3,553 to 2,335.

Sexual harassment victims that sought the help of Gabriela, a women’s group, increased to 34 in 2005 from 14 in 2004. The PNP report, however, indicated a decrease in the number of incidents of sexual harassment and acts of lasciviousness from 633 in 2004 to 573 in 2005.

Nevertheless, women continue to be victims of sexual harassment with more cases unreported. This is simply because there is still no government agency monitoring the implementation of R.A. 7877 or the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law, 11 years after the law took into effect on March 5, 1995. Moreover, the law confines its implementation in places of work and learning or educational institutions.

Also, sexual offenders are not significantly deterred with some convicted sexual harassers even getting light penalties compared to those provided by law.

R.A. 7877 penalizes a convicted sexual harasser with imprisonment from one to six months or a fine of P10,000 to P20,000, or both. This penalty is lower than the maximum six years imprisonment meted to a guilty party in an act of lasciviousness case.

Meanwhile, despite R.A. 9207 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, 155 Filipina victims of sex trafficking sought refuge at the Department of Social Work and Development last year.

Despite laws protecting women and children, a wide gap separates declared policies to what is actually happening to women and other vulnerable sectors in the country.

Regressing

“We have gained so much in terms of policies, but in terms of application and the actual conditions of women, we are not only lacking but regressing,” declared Ursua when asked to assess the conditions of women vis-à-vis policies protecting women’s rights.

“The system is still so caught up with a culture that is so violent against women and, in general, women’s issues are still trivialized,” Ursua said. She said human rights violations against women continue and have worsened alongside the general political and social crisis in the Philippines.

For the lawyer who has taken it upon herself to seek justice for ‘Nicole’, pursuing the American marines charged of rape is just another battle to challenge a system that continues to violently trample on the rights of women, in particular, and the Filipino people, in general. Bulatlat

BACK TO TOP ■  PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION  ■   COMMENT

© 2006 Bulatlat ■  Alipato Publications

Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.