SUFFERING WOMEN. This political art, seen at the Davao offices of the women’s group Gabriela, depicts the abuses women, particularly their activist sisters, go through under a repressive regime. (davaotoday.com photo by Cheryll D. Fiel)
According to the human-rights group Karapatan, 15 women from Southern Mindanao alone were killed in the past five years due to their political involvements. Nationwide, 86 of the more than 700 victims of political killings from 2001 to August 2, 2006, were women.
By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com
DAVAO CITY — A young village teacher killed in a strafing incident. An elderly woman hacked to death while sleeping in her home. Two volunteers of a nongovernment organization abducted and tortured by the military. Another NGO worker disappeared without a trace.
Several women in Southern Mindanao went through these, and more, in 2006. It was a year that, overall, saw the deterioration of the state of human rights and civil liberties in the Philippines.
Joan Lingkuran, Trinidad Quirante, Lourilie Naiz, Bernadette Solitario, and Nelly Intise they are the women involved in the said incidents. Apart from the atrocities they suffered, they have one thing in common: they were violated while fighting for the rights and welfare of people in their communities.
According to the human-rights group Karapatan, 15 women from Southern Mindanao alone were killed in the past five years due to their political involvements. Nationwide, 86 of the more than 700 victims of political killings from 2001 to August 2, 2006, were women. Forty two of them belonged to womens organizations, 36 came from the peasants sector while eight came from tribal groups.
The number of victims of enforced disappearances, the so-called desaparecidos, is equally alarming: of the 180 Filipino desaparecidos, 30 of them are women.
These figures, according to Corazon Espinosa, vice-chairperson for Southern Mindanao of the womens group Gabriela, “are indicative of the seriously alarming level of violations of women’s human rights that up to now remain unabated and show no sign of letting up.”
The fate of women desaparecidos is even more difficult, Espinosa said. “This is because of the macho mentality of their captors. As in many experiences of such cases we had in the past, these military men see the women they capture as sex objects. They also use rape and sexual molestation as a matter of policy against women victims in degrading their persons during interrogation.”
The documented case of two women NGO workers who were forcibly brought to a military camp and held overnight for questioning is the latest testament to this. (See related story.)
Espinosa lamented that justice is elusive especially when the perpetrators are the state’s security forces.
It is even worse when suspected perpetrators are virtually exonerated and praised by no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself, Espinosa said. She cited the case of Brig. Gen. Jovito Palparan, who was specially mentioned by President Arroyo in her State of the Nation Address last year despite widespread condemnation of the abductions by Palparans men of two University of the Philippines students, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeo.
Will things get any better this year? Sadly, Espinosa sees an even more bloody year, especially since it is election time again. “We just have to keep on fighting for justice. It is the only option left for us against these oppressions, Espinosa said. (Cheryll D. Fiel/davaotoday.com)
[tags]davao today, general santos, 2006, north cotabato, mindanao, philippines, human rights, gabriela, torture, rape, sexual harassment, political killings, philippine military[/tags]
2006: Davao Today's Year-End Series, Extrajudicial Killings, Gender Issues
