Solidarity Message for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (VAW) HON. LEILA M. DE LIMA Senator Commission on Human Rights, Quezon City 25 November 2020 Good morning to all of you, my fellow warriors. I pray that this message finds you well, in spite of these trying times. Today, I join you, as I always have, in calling for the absolute elimination of all forms of violence against women. We have come a long way from that dark period in history when women were deprived of their right to express themselves and become part of the decision-making process, the freedom to think and speak, the liberty to be something more than just a damsel in distress waiting to be saved. However, these victories have been overshadowed by the continued abuses perpetrated against women. Legislation and jurisprudence have both been ravished by the slights against women – whether as a physical assault by a husband or a partner, or as a late night rambling of a
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man in power against a hardworking Vice-President. All such attacks warrant the same amount of revulsion and rage – not to be ever tolerated, but to be called out and condemned. In 2017, a Philippine National Demographic and Health survey has revealed that for every four Filipinas aged 15-49, one has experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse by their partner or husband. That’s a staggering 25% – either raped, or beaten or killed. It is truly unfortunate how this reality is a stark contrast to the supposed legal empowerment and social legislation that have won for us our seat at the table. News reports still show a wife left black and blue, a young woman bravely reporting a sexual abuse by a police officer only to be gunned down to death just minutes after reporting the incident, little girls sold to be deflowered and destroyed. The violence has even worsened during the lockdowns when help desks were shut down and quarantine has made reporting more burdensome. The pandemic locked girls and women inside their homes when all they needed was escape to survive – it exacerbated the threats to women and their vulnerabilities because it aggravated poverty and powerlessness that have long subjected women to unequal opportunities and protections. The abuse has many faces, the perpetrators have many artilleries at their disposal – whether as domestic violence, as sex trafficking and prostitution, as sexual harassment, as oppression in employment based on sex, or as political repression aggravated by gender discrimination. They all amount to violence that must be eradicated so that we would no longer have to raise little girls in a world where she would constantly blame herself for the sexual harassment that she went through because she wore her favorite mini skirt, where she should have to work doubly hard for the promotion simply because the boss prefers a man who will
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never need a maternity leave, where she would be arbitrarily locked up for fighting for truth and justice. This challenge to fight every attempt at reducing all our sacrifices and triumphs into slut-shaming and trolling, has become even more important in the digital age. We have seen the many instances when, troll farms and blind followers who kowtow to the chauvinist President’s every move, have lambasted women who simply did their job, women who courageously opposed human rights abuses, women who dared speak truth to power. I, myself, am no stranger to this type of violence. I will never forget how my fellow legislators tarnished the hallowed halls of their institution in a trial by publicity where they forgot about parliamentary ethics if only to reduce a woman and her achievements because their ego cannot handle a woman who fights and wins. The sound of their boisterous laughter with their vile accusations will always echo through my consciousness – but never as a threat against my womanhood and integrity, but as a constant reminder how we should never again let them destroy another woman. Here and now, we scream – enough is enough. We will no longer let you create that illusion that you are more powerful than us. We are the mothers from whose chest you were nurtured, you do not get to disrespect any of us again. This patriarchal society has choked us with aprons around our waists like an order to stay on the sidelines and shut up. But today we declare: no, you will no longer silence us. Not even when the men in power red tag our kind when they could no longer contain us, not even amidst threats of reprisal when the truth in our voice subjugate them. Violence Against Women is as debilitating and catastrophic as a virus. And as we have already learned through experience – a virus has to be ripped off root and stem. And so today, we begin 3
with defying the order to just keep quiet and cross our legs – today we will rise up and scream so that we can fight for our rights and freedoms. And then we take every opportunity to speak of the horrors that many women still have to endure. And finally, we bond together to combat any and all forms of violence. No more attempt to emasculate our power will ever succeed again. Not while you and I remain on guard – like warriors banded together no longer shackled, no longer beaten, no longer suppressed. ###
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