In the current crisis we are facing, the greater the authority of government officials, the greater the possibility for them to abuse their power in dispensing public services to the people.
In this video posted by GMA News dated March 27, 2020, a barangay chieftain allegedly hit a resident with a bamboo stick when the latter and his wife were seen washing clothes outside their house. The authorities apparently argued that the person violated the enhanced community quarantine policy of the government during the Luzon total lockdown to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
Eventually, the incident has been resolved between the victim Marvin Alcorroque and Barangay Chairperson Benjie Hernandez of South Daang Hari in Taguig City. But during the interview done by 24 oras news reporter with the couple, Jane La Villa the wife of the victim said that Hernadez is to blame if something bad happens to his husband.
This barangay personnel must be made accountable and immediately sanctioned. They should be charged with administrative and, criminal charges—if warranted.
Abusive officials tasked to implement the policy will only discourage public cooperation. Public officials are not only limited to enforcing the law but also and more importantly to serve and protect the public’s interest and wellbeing.
Public officials should always be reminded to remain within the limit of the law, assuring accountability, participation, and as well as providing legal remedies for citizens whose rights and interests have been violated.
We encourage the public to continuously report such abuses.
Taguig City Council Mayor Lino Cayetano Department of the Interior and Local Government Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines
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The Love that Replaces Violence and Abuse
Fr. Shay Cullen
February 14, 2015
Working for peace in the world is a thankless task. Peace is elusive, as violence seems to grow despite all the great worFr. Shay Cullenk of so many peacemakers. The terrible violence with unbridled savagery that we see today on our television screens shows humans descending to the lowest depths of horror.
The ISIS terrorists burnt a Jordan airman alive in a cage. Hundreds if not thousands have been beheaded, mutilated and budgeted to death and video taped for the world to see. More recently Philippine soldiers wounded on a mission to capture a terrorist in Mindanao were brutally tortured and executed. In Africa Boko Haram killers destroy villages and rape and pillage and mutilate civilians and in the Ukraine the killing goes on as a fragile ceasefire has yet to take hold.
The so-called “magnificent human,” the rational intelligent pinnacle of evolution is the most destructive and violent creature on the planet. From where comes such savagery, we ask, and blood dripping violence? One place to start looking for the roots of human violence is in childhood abuse.
In most cases of brutal murders and violent behavior defense lawyers present as mitigating circumstances the child abuse and violence perpetrated against the accused from their early years. That abuse, they say, formed the violent tendency in his or her personality.
They argue that the abuse causes uncontrollable urges for retribution, revenge and vengeance that can be the driving force behind many brutal crimes.
Many a judge has accepted that as a true mitigating circumstance. However most judges rule that the accused must be held accountable for his or her crimes of violence. But the court acknowledges that childhood abuse: sexual, physical, verbal and psychological abuse has a dire impact on children.
The schoolyard bullying that children inflict on other children is perhaps indicative of a unhappy childhood and a projection of inner anger and repressed anger at abusive parents or others. The child victims can grow up seeking retaliation against all adult bullies. This can lead to violent acts.
Catholic teachings have been continually been misinterpreted, ignored and contradicted by the custom and practices in Catholic institutions and families over the past centuries.
Physical and sexual abuse of children has been grossly covered up and ignored for centuries. Physical punishment in schools and institutions and in families was common and caused untold lifelong psychological hurt and pain to children.
In most developed countries it has been rightly exposed, condemned and banned and made illegal. The cover-up and denial still goes on as institutions and families hide their shame and embarrassment. That too is a crime that goes on with impunity.
Children rarely have a chance or venue to complain, demand justice and get help. Even authorities in developing countries ignore many complaints and even ignore them. So long as childhood abuse is allowed to continue there will be many abused people seeking revenge and they may turn to violence. They can channel their anger and rebellious urges into gang violence, hooliganism, crime, or even terrorism and war.
Many have joined political parties known for racial hatred and violent tendencies. People of all religious beliefs must do all they can to end child abuse and protect children.
For Christians and particularly Catholics this has been greatly stressed by Pope Francis on his visit to the Philippines where his homilies given in the power of the spirit have inspired, energized and motivated Catholic communities to do more to safeguard and protect children.
This is done by energetically planting Christian values regarding the child given to us by Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 18 Vs 1 8). The innocent child is placed by Jesus at the center of the kingdom as a model for adults to imitate. Those who respect the child respects me, he said of the child. Those who abuse them are better off with a millstone tied around their necks cast into the deep ocean.
The Catholic communities in the Philippines are taking the words of Pope Francis to heart after 6 million of them attended his farewell Mass in Manila and they are looking for ways to put their faith into action. They need inspiration to find the moral strength to speak out against abusers. Many choose to look the other way and avoid the unpleasant reality. Instead they ought to be fired up by faith and conviction in the gospel message of Jesus and demand protection and justice for the vulnerable abused child.
There is a great challenge in the words of Pope Francis, “protect the children” he said and repeated it three times. Perhaps he is aware that child abuse is widespread, is ignored by church leaders, Catholics and the authorities who give lip service while the practice of sex tourism, child prostitution, jailing of children and punishing children severely is still widespread and done with impunity.
This has to stop and parents and society must give love, respect, affirmation, patience, understanding, inspiration and encouragement must replace punishment and harsh discipline. Children will then grow in love and peaceful non-violence.
shaycullen@gmail.com
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ECPAT Philippines picket for support
Picket to challenge rulings in the Bosio case and show support for victims of child exploitation
ECPAT Philippines together with our partners protest the unjust ruling in the case of People of the Philippines vs Daniele Bosio y Ostillio. We have doubts regarding Judge Teodoro N. Solis’ decision to grant bail to the accused, Daniele Bosio y Ostillio, without an arraignment.
Former Italian diplomat, Daniele Bosio y Ostillio, is accused of violation of RA 7610 (3 counts) and Qualified Trafficking in Persons (3 counts). Bosio was able to post bail immediately after Judge Solis’ ruling. While a Hold Departure Order was only issued after the accused has posted bail, Bosio’s whereabouts are currently unknown.
We fear Judge Teodoro N. Solis is not fit to handle the delicate nature of this case as he had already stated in open court that accused is not an ordinary person and allowed hospital confinement without medical basis. We are deeply concerned about the proceedings and we hope this show of support increases the likelihood for justice. We are expecting a favorable resolution that provides justice for the victims and their families.
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(London, March 31, 2014) – Migrant domestic workers accompanying their employers to the United Kingdom are being subjected to serious abuses including forced labor, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The UK government is doing far too little to protect vulnerable workers, and recent changes to UK immigration rules make it harder for workers to flee abuse, the report found.
“It’s scandalous that in modern Britain migrant domestic workers are subject to such appalling abuses,” said Izza Leghtas, Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But instead of protecting these workers, the system makes it harder for them escape.”
The 58-page report, “Hidden Away: Abuses against Migrant Domestic Workers in the UK,” documents the confiscation of passports, confinement to the home, physical and psychological abuse, extremely long working hours with no rest days, and very low wages or non-payment of wages. The report also shows the UK government has failed to live up to its obligations under international law to protect migrant domestic workers and enable them to access justice if they are mistreated.
In April 2012, the UK abolished the right of migrant domestic workers to change employer once they are in the UK, against the recommendations of parliament, nongovernmental organizations, and UN experts. Under the terms of the new ‘tied visa,’ overseas domestic workers cannot legally leave their employer and find new work, meaning those abused can become trapped.
“Workers who are mistreated now face a horrendous choice: either endure the terrible abuse, or escape and become undocumented migrants, where of course they are much more vulnerable to further abuse and exploitation,” said Leghtas. “It’s abhorrent that anyone should be tied into abuse in this way.”
Because domestic helpers work in private households, much of the abuse takes place behind closed doors. Workers told Human Rights Watch of working up to 18 hours per day for weeks on end without breaks, not being fed properly and surviving off leftovers, being forbidden from possessing a mobile phone or contacting their own families, and being unable to ever leave their employers’ homes unaccompanied. Some were paid wages as little as £100 (US$160) per month and sometimes even these meagre salaries were withheld.
The British Home Secretary Theresa May is bringing forward a modern slavery bill to tackle serious labor abuses in the UK. In December 2013, May presented a draft bill that would increase penalties for slavery, servitude, forced labor, and human trafficking from 14 years to life imprisonment. But the bill makes no reference at all to the plight of domestic workers. A parliamentary committee is reviewing the draft bill and is due to publish a report in early April.
Human Rights Watch is urging the government to broaden the scope of the bill to ensure appropriate protections for migrant domestic workers, including the right to change employer. Restoring this right is vital to help combat abuse against this very vulnerable group of workers, Human Rights Watch said.
Every year, some 15,000 migrant domestic workers arrive in the UK. Many of those interviewed by Human Rights Watch were women from Asia or Africa who previously worked for their employers in the Gulf, and had already experienced abuse there at the hands of their employers.
Human Rights Watch has documented serious and widespread abuses against migrant domestic workers in the Gulf where gaps in labor laws and the restrictive sponsorship (kafala) system contribute to exploitation. The kafala system ties a domestic worker’s visa to her employer, and gives employers control over whether the worker can change jobs and, in some places, exit the country. The UK’s abolition of the right to change employer risks sending a signal to employers from the Gulf that they can continue to treat their workers as they did under the kafala system, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch also found that the measures the UK government has in place to prevent abuse are inadequate. The government requires workers to have been employed for at least a year by their employer before coming to the UK. However, many migrant domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in London said their employers had subjected them to abuse in the Gulf and treated them the same, or sometimes even worse, in the UK. Migrant domestic workers are often unable to access redress mechanisms in the Gulf – because their employers confiscate their passports and heavily restrict their movements – so prior employment with a family overseas is not a reliable indicator that no abuse has occurred.
The UK government also requires written terms and conditions of employment to be signed by both the employer and the employee, including the obligation to pay UK minimum wage. But there is no mechanism to monitor whether those terms are respected.
Under domestic, European, and international human rights law, the UK must protect migrant domestic workers from abuse, both from government officials and from private individuals. But recent cuts to legal aid deny victims who have not been recognized as possible victims of trafficking free legal assistance, even if they are victims of forced labor.
The UK government has also refused to ratify a groundbreaking international treaty which affords the same rights to domestic workers as other workers. In June 2011, the UK was one of only nine countries that did not vote in favor of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention. Human Rights Watch is also recommending that the UK ensure that domestic workers are made fully aware of their rights in the UK when they apply for visas, and that employers understand their duty to treat employees in accordance with UK law.
“The UK government is failing in its duty to protect migrant domestic workers, who all too often are victims of horrific hidden abuse,” Leghtas said. “If it’s serious about ending what it calls modern day slavery, the government should recognize just how vulnerable these workers are and give them the protection they deserve.”
“Hidden Away: Abuses against Migrant Domestic Workers in the UK” is available at: http://hrw.org/node/124191
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Emotional abuse: Most common type of domestic violence
Veronica Pulumbarit, GMA News
March 10, 2012
The Pinoy Abroad section of GMA News Online is running a series of articles on gender-based violence to help empower women and enlighten men. We now turn our attention to EMOTIONAL ABUSE, the most common type of domestic violence.
Angela’s husband has never hit her. Still, she lives in fear of him as he constantly ridicules and scolds her for every little mistake she makes.
According to the United States-based magazine “Psychology Today,” one of the worst things that can happen to a person is to live with an emotional abuser.
Psychological or emotional abuse is the most common type of violence experienced by women and children and is deemed by many as the “worst kind of abuse,” the New Zealand-based non-profit group Women’s Refuge said.
Specifically, the UN defines domestic violence as a violent act perpetrated by intimate
partners through:
physical abuse (such as slapping, beating, arm twisting, stabbing, strangling, burning, choking, kicking, threats with an object or weapon, murder, genital mutilation, and others);
sexual abuse (such as coerced sex, intimidation or physical force, forcing unwanted sexual acts or forcing sex with others);
psychological abuse (includes intimidation, persecution, threats of abandonment or abuse, confinement to the home, surveillance, threats to take away custody of the children, destruction of objects, isolation, verbal aggression, and constant humiliation), and economic abuse (includes denial of funds, refusal to contribute financially, denial of food and basic needs, and controlling access to health care, employment, etc.)
It has led CHR chairperson Etta Rosales to call for the amendment of the anti-hazing law to include military and police institutions.
Rosales said she was surprised upon receiving the video in her email.
The clip shows a cadet being pushed, punched, and given a karate chop in the neck.
The cadet was also hit with a knee in the stomach, back, and thighs, and was slapped by fellow cadets.
Rosales said she received the video after media reported on the case of the hazing of police trainees at Camp Eldrige in Laguna, and the death of a cadet at the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy in Zambales.
It has all the elements of the Easter story, courage, self- sacrifice, betrayal, punishment, humiliation and a love for another for which there is no reward but only punishment. It is a story of betrayal of the most serious kind wherein parents sent their two children into harms way and traumatized them for the rest of their lives. They were delivered to captivity, torture, spiritual and emotional death. For some children, it ends in physical death, when they resist abuse they are murdered.
The story of Marcel and Angelica is about betrayal but also resistance and resurrection. Here is a story of a brave courageous 16 year old who took every risk to go against her abusive parents and endure their anger and punishment, rejection and humiliation to try to save her younger 14 year old sister Angelica from a similar fate as she herself endured sex slavery.
Marcel was sold to foreigners who are willing to pay anything to abuse children and her sister was now sold also. It was too much for Marcel, she summed up the courage and bravely sought to rescue her sister and endure all the anger and rejection heaped on her. But she succeeded and her sister was saved and brought into the protection of the children’s home and the foreign pedophile sex tourist arrested. But then the judge took the side of her abusive parents and then ordered the child to be returned to the parents and the abuser. The child witness was forced to withdraw her complaint of abuse, the charges were then dismissed and the pedophile escaped. It appears that justice was denied and evil thriumphed. But it’s not over yet.
And so it appears that evil overcomes goodness. Holy week, with Black Saturday and Holy Friday are always with us.
Human rights advocates, social workers working for justice, activists protesting against mining, child abuse and corruption are beaten, betrayed, arrested and killed. In Midsalip, Mindanao, the community holding a picket line to prevent mining machinery from ravaging their lands, have been beaten, brutalized and murdered. They, like Jesus, bravely spoke out and stood against the forces of evil and showed their love of the community and died for their neighbors and to protect the environment.
I wrote recently how innocent children in Zamboanga, were taken bound, gagged and tortured to death, the youngest 12 years old. Children are made in the image of God, Jesus taught us that great truth, and the most important of all in the Kingdom of God are the children. (Matt 18; 1-8) The abusers are best thrown in to the ocean with a stone around there neck, he said. He established the rights of the child. They were ignored for centuries and only in our generation are they officially recognized by the Convention of the Rights of the Child and have protection and help.
But they need much more as children are under assault and more are abducted and abused as ever before. Thousands are sold into labor camps, trafficked to brothels and abused by parents in their own families by the thousands.
We need every true Christian to experience a spiritual resurrection from apathy and indifference, fear and inaction. They are called from the grave to live a full life and to speak out for justice and human rights. They are filled with the power of the resurrection and enabled to challenge man-made-misery and the injustice that abuses and oppresses the poor and the children. They believe in the power of love, and they inspire more people to emerge from the grave of silence and ignorance into the light to proclaim freedom for the innocent.
They are the resurrected, they are the people emerging from the death like state caused by apathy and indifference. They roll aside the great stones that block the path to life and equality and they give voice to the truth. Can we not strive to be a person like this? No greater love can anyone have than to give his life for his friend, Jesus said. All our neighbors are friends. We can live for others and give our lives for those in greatest need. There is no better way to live a full life.
(Fr. Shay’s columns are published in The Manila Times,
in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and on-line.)
In the current crisis we are facing, the greater the authority of government officials, the greater the possibility for them to abuse their power in dispensing public services to the people.Submit your contribution online through HRonlinePH@gmail.com
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