The City Social Services and Development Office in Davao has expressed concern against the increasing cases of violence against women in Davao City.
Gloria Mandin, chief of the CSSDO’s Integrated Gender Development Division revealed the office has been receiving an average of five complaints of violence against women every day.
She said 80 percent of the cases involved abandonment or absence of financial support while 20 percent pertained to battery, psychological and sexual abuses.
Mandin said many of the victims are not employed and are highly dependent economically on their spouses.
“The complaints emanate either for overseas foreign workers who have gone missing and could no longer be located or simply nearby but no longer give financial support. The wives filed their complaints in the office and sued their respective partners,” she said.
Mandin said that from January to June this year, 980 cases were received by their office. It is higher compared to the same period in 2015, when 700 cases were reported.
She said Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has employed five lawyers to provide legal assistance to the victims.
“The trend is actually the same nationwide, reckoning the complaints received before the police and the Department of Social Welfare and Development,” she said Friday during the launching of the 18-day campaign to end the violence against women at the People’s Park.
The campaign will end on December 12 in time for the commemoration of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Campaign.
Mayor Sara, in a message read by Councilor Abegail Dalodo-Ortiz, stressed that the top priority of her governance is the welfare of women and the vulnerable sector.
She said the coming together of many sectors espousing women’s causes indicates a stride in the effort to uplift women empowerment.
“We must not condone violence committed against women, especially those that happen within our homes, schools, workplaces and barangays,” Sara said.
She underscored the need to strengthen the city’s program for women and their children, anchored on their protection from violence from people they know or by strangers.
The 18-Day Campaign to End Violence Women is organized by the Philippine Commission on Women (PWC). The campaign is in solidarity to UNiTE to End VAW Campaign of the United Nations.
The United Nations has chosen orange as the banner color of the campaign this year because it represents hope and symbolizes the brighter future of a world free from violence against women and girls.
The people will also use the hashtag #orangetheworld to the spread the advocacy over social media. (PNA)
