WEDPRO, Inc.

Statistics on Violence Against Women and Children:
A Morally Rejuvenating Philippine Society?

by Dr. Romulo A. Virola
Secretary General, NSCB

We do not enjoy reading sensationalized stories on victims of violence, especially women and children, and we doubt whether gory media reporting of details of such crimes is protected by its responsibility to provide information to the public. In fact, we doubt if it contributes to the prevention, and if it at all, to the upliftment of our society. But we must know and talk about violence against women and children if we are to break the culture of silence that is conducive to the perpetration and perpetuation of these sins of modern society.

Women in Especially Difficult Circumstances (WEDC)2 include women who have been victims of sexual abuse, physical abuse/maltreatment/battering, illegal recruitment, involuntary prostitution, armed conflict, human trafficking, detention, and others like HIV patients/potentials, strandees, abandoned, emotionally distressed, unwed mothers, sexually exploited, voluntary committed/surrendered, and neglected victims of disaster.

Read more about it @ http://www.nscb.gov.ph/headlines/StatsSpeak/2008/090808_rav_wedc.asp.