A woman or a child is raped every 62 minutes in the Philippines.
This is the finding made by the Center for Women Resources (CWR) in a study they made on cases of rape in the country when the death penalty was still in place and during the time when it was abolished.
“With or without death penalty, rape of a woman or child every 62 minutes will continue,” the CWR said in a press statement on Tuesday.
CWR is a 35-year research and training institution for women.
The group also provided the latest data from Philippine National Police Women’s Desk (PNP-WCPC) that revealed on an additional 7,037 rape cases from January to October 2016 which led to the conclusion that rape cases occur every 62 minutes in the country.
CWR added that for a decade, from 2005 to 2014, the number of recorded rape cases total 52,453 (including incestous and attempted rape).
Of the total number, 75% of the victims are children, the group added.
“The execution of a convicted rapist in 1999 did not stop abusers from raping women and girls,” the CWR said, adding that in 2016, a total of 2,842 children were reportedly victims of rape.
“Given a corrupt system and a culture of impunity where the rich and the powerful can go scot-free, death penalty will always be a contentious method to curb criminality in the country,” Jojo Guan, executive director of CWR pointed out.
Guan added that women from the lowest wealth quintile face more violence like rape.
“Their indigent condition makes them vulnerable to abuses and sexual exploitation. With lack of economic resources, they could not afford the expensive, long, and tedious judicial process. Thus, justice remains elusive to the marginalized victims.”
The bill on death penalty will only further violate women’s rights, Guan says.
“There is a great possibility that this will be used as an additional instrument to curb political dissent and punish human rights activists. As it is, there are still more than 30 women political detainees who are languishing in jail with trumped up charges. Another criminal charge of drugs can be fabricated against them,” Guan stressed.
The group also emphasized that death penalty, in the present system, will only be beneficial to the powers-that-be.
“Social justice is denied as long as a quarter of our country’s riches only belong to a few elite,” CWR concluded.
The House of Representatives on Tuesday is on the way to approve on 3rd and final reading House Bill Number 4727, a legislative measure that will pave the way for the re-imposition of the death penalty in the country.
If approved and finalized, the proposed bill will be transmitted to the Senate.
The Senate has yet to come up with its own version on the re-imposition of death penalty in the country.
But the version at the lower house was questioned by some quarters particularly the non-inclusion of other crimes such as Plunder and rape to the proposed measure.
President Duterte also commented on the non-inclusion of rape as punishable by death in the proposed measure.
But House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez told reporters in Manila on Monday that he will file another bill that will include rape and other heinous crimes punishable by death.
The narrowing of the list to drug-related crimes was aimed to speed up the process of approving the HB 4727, Alvarez, explained.
