RINJ Continues to Warn Filipino Girls in National Emergency



Manila, September 6, 2016 :6:00pm China Standard Time

The RINJ Foundation continues to warn women and girls in the Philippines to avoid any behavior which would bring them into the Criminal Justice System in the Philippines because of the risk from rapists within the law enforcement community.

That’s not a complaint on Duterte, that is a statement of fact and reality in the Philippines,” said the CEO of The RINJ Foundation.

But this is the same Rodrigo Duterte who in April  complained about not being first in line to rape Australian Jacqueline Hamill as a rape joke during his election campaign.

(“All the women were raped so during the first assault, because they retreated, the bodies they used as a cover, one of them was the corpse of the Australian woman layminister. Tsk, this is a problem. When the bodies were brought out, they were wrapped. I looked at her face, son of a bitch, she looks like a beautiful American actress. Son of a bitch, what a waste. What came to mind was, they raped her, they lined up. I was angry because she was raped, that’s one thing. But she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What a waste.” – President R. Duterte  [ from this video)

[Ed.Note: On August 13, 1989, 16 inmates at the Davao Metropolitan District Command Center who had previously escaped from the Davao Penal Colony, took hostage 15 members of a Protestant group, the Joyful Assembly of God. The inmates were part of the prison gang called the Wild Boys of DaPeCol, led by Felipe Pugoy and Mohammad Nazir Samparani. The hostage crisis ended with the death of 5 hostages and all 16 inmates. (With notes from Wikipedia.]

The RINJ Foundation adduces that the attitude of the rape-joking President Duterte toward the rape of women and the rape culture this promotes is pervasive among Filipinos.

SM Mall promoted this T-Shirt through 2014 This is the largest chain of malls and department stores in the Philippines.

 

Police in the Philippines are notorious for having many rapists among them.

Women in custody or witnesses/complainants in the Philippines are at risk of rape and sexual abuse.

Between 1995 and 2000 Amnesty International says it received reports of more than 30 incidents of rape or other sexual abuse of women or girls in custody.

Most survivors of this crime never speak out.  The RINJ Foundation is investigating a significant number of allegations across the country and will seek criminal prosecutions no matter how long after the fact. Rape of women detainees by police officers, jail guards or military officials constitutes ‘torture’. Other forms of sexual abuse by law enforcement officials, including the threat of rape, verbal sexual abuse and mocking, designed to degrade and humiliate.  Prosecution of police officers for rape is rare.

Rape is a crime of power and control.

The President of the Philippines has asked the “police and military to run the country according to [his] specifications”.

Earlier today the Presidential Palace of Rodrigo Duterte issued notice of an indefinite national state of emergency.

Duterte has come under international scrutiny for his anti-drug program involving the gunning down in the streets of thousands of drug users, buyers and sellers of amphetamine.

700,000 Drug users have turned themselves into police out of fear of being gunned down. According to Vice-President Leni Robredo there is no rehabilitation program for these people. She has offered to create one.

I, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested upon me by Section 18, Article 7 of the Philippine Constitution, do hereby proclaim a state of emergency on account of lawless violence,”

I hereby command the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to undertake such measures, as may be permitted by the Constitution and existing laws to suppress any all forms of lawless violence in Mindanao and to prevent such lawlessness from spreading and escalating elsewhere in the Philippines,” he added.

Section 18, Article 7 of the Philippines Constitution provides that a President, as a commander-in-chief of all armed forces of the Philippines, “may call out such armed forces whenever it becomes necessary to prevent or suppress lawless violence.”

Duterte also noted that in recent months, there had been numerous violent acts in parts of Mindanao, including “abductions, hostage-takings and murder of innocent civilians, bombing of power transmission facilities, highway robberies and extortion, attacks on military outposts, assassination of media people, and mass jailbreaks.”

The RINJ Foundation cautions women that in an already ripe rape culture in the Philippines, and in the context of an increasing incidence of rape by law enforcement members, the perceived extra powers of police put women and girls in danger.

In the past we know that women are especially at risk when police are given extended powers in the Philippines. “Cops” may declare you a risk, bring you to the police station and rape you, torture you and imprison you under trumped up charges or worse. Victims of horrifying acts of torture during Martial Law  recounted their painful experiences before Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Wednesday, August 31.

  • Be wary,
  • don’t travel alone at any time,
  • and keep your behaviour above reproach.
  • Stay away from alcohol, bad driving, drugs & bad people.
  • Do nothing to bring you in contact with the criminal justice system.

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