Roles and Processes

The two respondents experiencing financial difficulties add up to the findings of the article by Felbab-Brown (2017) and Amnesty International UK (2020) that surviving families are preoccupied with having to provide for their day-to-day needs, and even burial expenses as aforementioned above in the previous section (see Chapter IV, Objective I, Social Needs and Coping), that seeking legal justice is not their top priority. In contrast to Kian Delos Santos’ case that has already won in court, the two respondents, even with solid evidence and assailants identified, either have made no progress in the filed case for more than a year already or no case was filed at all.

On the other hand, the lack of support from family members in pursuing a legal case supports Boghani’s (2019) findings in his book that survivors commonly experience this kind of unsupportiveness causing the family member to look for groups and associations that could help them in their quest for justice. Lastly, a new perspective emerged from one respondent who viewed the killing of her husband as something the husband deserves. She thought that the assailant whom she suspects has no fault because the killing happened within the period of the anti-drug campaign.

roles and processes

Table 35

Roles and Processes undertaken by the EJK survivors

Main themes Legal Reparation Sub-themes 1. 2. 3.

With legal action and knowledge

No legal action

Not involved in the case proceedings

Non-Legal Reparation 1. 2. Received non-legal/psychosocial support Encourages others in their pursuit for reparation

To facilitate their journey towards justice and healing, these women have taken on different roles and engaged in various processes to repair or fix their lives and try to go back to their normal lives. In legal terms, reparation is compensation in monetary form payable by a country to individuals for the wrong done to them (Dictionary.com, n.d.) However, for this section, the term will be used not only to repair through giving compensation; it is also defined as the state of acting on something to repair for a damage whether legally, biologically, psychologically, spiritually, socially, or financially.

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LEGAL REPARATION

One of the steps forward taken by the families is to pursue reparation through legal means. Of the 10 respondents, seven have taken legal action in the form of case documentation, or filing of cases at the CHR or in court. For “Natalie”, she knows and understands the importance of having their cases documented and gathering enough evidence to support their claims,

Kasi pagdating daw sa araw, sa oras na bababa si Duterte, may papel ka na katunayan na yung anak mo pinatay sa ganyan, sa karahasan. Kaya nagiipon na ako ng ano kasi isa din ako na mag-...pag halimbawa magkatotoo yan. (In the future, when the time comes that Duterte steps down, I have proof on paper that my child was killed, due to violence. That’s why I am gathering [evidence] in case this [reparation] would happen eventually).

Two of them have no direct involvement with the case proceeding because they were not present during the incident. While there has been a case filed for “Ella”’s brother, “Carol” did not file any case due to lack of witnesses and information. “Joan” shares that one of the reasons why two of them have not taken any legal action yet is the lack of support to pursue the case, “Yung sa byenan ko hindi ko rin po makumbinsi” (I cannot convince my in-laws [to file a case]). The other reason being financial constraints and the possible expenses they may incur should they proceed with any legal action.

It is encouraging that despite all the hindrances, the majority of the respondents have already taken legal action towards their claim for justice. As the CHR shares, their services, along with the support of other organizations, such as provision of free legal assistance, human rights education and training, and their advocacy and campaign work, are essential in helping these families in pursuing their cases.

NON-LEGAL/ PSYCHOSOCIAL REPARATION

All of the 10 respondents received and are still receiving non-legal and psychosocial support from SOW and PAGHILOM. All of them are beneficiaries of various assistance offered by both of the programs for surviving families of EJK such as food packs, livelihood assistance, psycho-spiritual interventions, educational assistance, and the like. Of the 10 respondents, three explicitly expressed that they encourage and support other people with the same situations as them who are seeking legal and/or non-legal reparation.

The repair for damages, not only in the legal aspect but for the whole being of the survivors, is equally important for their full healing and recovery. As PhilRights (2017) underscored, after the EJK is done, the impact goes beyond the violence— trauma, grief, financial instability, insecurity, and distress are also manifested. Since these needs 219

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sprang from the incident, they need to be addressed for the families to go back to their normal social functioning and help them heal and recover fully.

Theories in Action The theories and perspective used to answer this objective were the Ecological Systems Theory, Empowerment Theory, and Human Rights Based Approach. Using the Ecological Systems Theory, the perceptions and struggles of the respondents were explored by navigating through the different systems that affected how they see their journey to recovery. Their answers to their views were based on their interactions with the different types of systems as discussed in the theory (Gibson, 2019): in the mezzo system, the friends, families, and churches which all facilitated their view of having a sense of hope, justice, and acceptance of the situation; the schools and communities, where stigmatization and discrimination are present and made them realize the reality of the two; and lastly, with the larger system, the kind of government and justice system the country has strongly affected their perception of justice as well.

The same concept applies with the struggles experienced by the surviving families; the person is in the environment thus the person is affected by the environment (Gibson, 2019 & Kondrat, 2002). The struggles faced by the respondents can be classified into the interaction they experienced in the three systems. The microsystem, where the individual who is experiencing the emotional struggle of being unable to process intense emotions is in. In the mezzo system and macrosystem, where the communities and larger society are situated, victim-blaming and culture of impunity are present. Both are systemic issues passed down from one generation to another and can be found in the interaction of the larger systems such as institutions, organizations in power and the government itself. And lastly, the struggle on legal-related concerns, which can be found as products in the interactions of the systems in the mezzo system and macrosystem. The lack of awareness of rights, falsified information of death, fear of and distrust to police authorities are social factors felt by the respondents.

On the other hand, the different roles and processes undertaken by the respondents for reparation are largely influenced by the mezzo and macro systems they have encountered. Both the legal and non-legal reparation processes were facilitated by organizations situated in the larger systems. Consequently, since larger systems are involved, their chances and opportunities to repair the damages brought by the WoD heavily rely on the actions of these organizations and institutions. In the Rights-based lens, all of the respondents should have their rights respected, upheld and protected, otherwise, these rights are violated (UNFPA, 2014). Clearly, the right to life of their lost loved ones, right to a fair trial, right to equal access to social services to receive reparation for the damages caused by the WoD, the right to be free from discrimination, and the right for personal security were all violated and robbed off from the surviving families. The findings show that all of the respondents received non-legal help, and seven were

able to file for legal remedies, two were not directly involved, while one has not filed any legal remedy because of having no witness and no support from family members. It can be easily concluded that these families are exercising their rights, however, a lot of factors are at play to confidently conclude that their rights are fully exercised; if all of these EJK cases are given justice, only then can it be said that their rights were fully exercised.

After careful consideration of the different effects of the systems the respondents have socially interacted with, the Empowerment Theory and Strengths-based approach guided in exploring the resources, capacities (Saleeby, 1996) they have in order to achieve individual and collective goals (Lee, 2001) despite the experienced human rights violations and struggles experienced. Moreover, the metaphors used by the 10 respondents to describe their journey to recovery show that despite the gravity of their situations, they are able to see at least one good thing. This is an indicator that the interventions they underwent, non-legal or legal, have helped them to recover indeed and somehow made them a step closer to retrieve their normal lives back before the EJK incident, and should be replicated, if not improved, to other surviving families as well.