The day of resurrection will not be a joyful one for two 16-year old ladies, “Katrina” and “Isabel” (not their real names) from the mining town of Mankayan, Benguet. Both are 4th year high school students of this town. Katrina was able to join their school’s graduation rites, however Isabel failed to due to severe trauma she sustained from the rape committed allegedly by one Captain Danilo Lalin of the 50th Infantry Batallion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that is stationed in this town. Katrina was also allegedly raped by the same military officer in December 2011.
Isabel’s medico-legal certificate revealed complete hymenal and perianal lacerations which suggest that not just one person had raped her. Since Isabel returned home after disappearing for 4 days since 17 February 2012, her family observed that she was not in a normal state of mind. She was brought to the provincial hospital and her doctor pronounced her as being in a severely depressed state. The initial counselling facilitated by the Department of Social Wefare and Development (DSWD) is yet to be followed by a more sustained and intensive counselling that her case would require.
Immediate actions were done by Innabuyog, a known women’s rights organization in the region along with local women’s and farmers groups and the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, in completing the data of the incidents and reported the case to the local police unit. Series of consultations cum counselling with the family were also conducted and support was mobilized from the school personnel, community leaders, members and officials as well as with the local churches. All expressed their support for the demand of justice for the young victims. Disappointingly,
the Army spokesperson, Major Harold Cabunoc only urged the families of the victims to file formal charges with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
These recent cases of employing sexual violence to destroy the lives of two young ladies is a gross violation of human rights. It is not a new incident in the history of militarization in the region. Such incidents still support the findings of as a study made by the Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center (CWEARC) in 2002 that sexual violence forms part of the military operations to control communities. From the period of 1986 to 2001, the study documented 98 cases of women and 119 children abandoned by soldiers in selected communities of Abra, Mountain Province and Kalinga where there was prolonged military presence. Abandonment, sexual harassment and rape are forms of violence intended to humiliate the women and their
communities, erode their dignity, and impress on them their powerlessness. This same old tactic is again used in the case of Katrina and Isabel, exploiting their vulnerable age and incapacity to defend themselves.
These incidents of rape of minors must awaken our vigilance in demanding the AFP to uphold its responsibility and accountability to the people. The AFP should not only sit down and wait for the formal complaints but begin its own sincere actions in meeting justice for the victims and their community. There is no reason for them to continue basing themselves in a community where they are already regarded as threats to the security of women and the community as a whole. Let us be warned that the next community where they will be based may face the same cases of abuse. ###
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Cordillera Women's Education Action Research Center, Inc. (CWEARC)
#16 Loro St., Dizon Subdivision, Baguio City 2600 Philippines
email address: cwearc09@gmail.com
tel. no.: +63 74 442 5347
executive director: Vernie Yocogan-Diano
Empowering indigenous women in the Cordillera region, Philippines.
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Jill K. Cariño
Convenor
Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples Rights (TFIP)