I have to confess being a bit winded after this past week’s impassioned if not acrimonious exchanges about the saga of Suzette Sombilon Nicolas and Daniel J Smith.
Doing their post mortem on the case this morning. DZMM anchors Ted Failon and Korina Sanchez found it odd that Suzette, heretofore known to Filipinos as the faceless rape victim Niicole had gone away like a thief in the night, in much the same way her assailant-cum-paramour was removed in the dead of the night from the Pasay city jail to the decidedly more comfortable US Embassy.
From his frontline-soldier training as a Marine the Lance Corporal has been doing oh-so-boring clerical chores while awaiting the results of his rape conviction appeal.
It may not be wrong for his handlers to expect that with Suzette set to marry her 2-year-long American fiancé soon Daniel could soon be sprung again, this time to real freedom.
Maybe, just maybe though even justice Secretary Raul Gonzales is saying Suzette’s recantation will not weigh on the case appeal, except among Filipinos on the street.
Which brought me to think about the Filipina and how our image of her has morphed from the Maria Clara of old and recent vintage, from Jose Rizal’s mad-mother Sisa, to today’s scantily clad noontime TV go-go dancers and billboard liquor ad models.
Concern over the plight of the Filipina is no mean issue mind you. Even the US State Departnent’s 2008 Report on Human Rights in the Philippines devotes all of 716 words to narrating how women fare in our society.
Rape, including spousal rape, is illegal, but enforcement was ineffective. Rape continued to be a problem, with most cases unreported. At year’s end the PNP reported 3,549 rape cases, more than four times the 2007 figure. The increase may be attributable to improved reporting capability through women’s and children’s desks at police stations. There were reports of rape and sexual abuse of women in police or protective custody–often women from marginalized groups, such as suspected prostitutes, drug users, and lower-income individuals arrested for minor crimes.
Violence against women remained a serious problem. The law criminalizes physical, sexual, and psychological harm or abuse to women and their children committed by their spouses or partners. As of December the PNP reported 706 cases of wife battering and physical injuries. This number likely underreported significantly the level of violence against women.
A local women’s support group noted that, in smaller localities, perpetrators of abuse sometimes used personal relationships with local authorities to avoid prosecution. On other occasions women who sought to file complaints through the police were told to pay special fees before their complaints could be registered.
The PNP and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) both maintained help desks to assist victims of violence against women and to encourage the reporting of crimes. With the assistance of NGOs, officers received gender sensitivity training to deal with victims of sexual crimes and domestic violence. Approximately 9 percent of PNP officers were women. The PNP has a Women and Children’s Unit to deal with these issues.Prostitution is illegal but was a widespread problem. Many women suffered exposure to violence through their recruitment, often through deception, into prostitution. Penalties for prostitution are light, but detained prostitutes were sometimes subjected to administrative indignities and extortion. The DSWD continued to provide temporary shelter and counseling to women engaged in prostitution. Through year’s end, DSWD provided temporary shelter and counseling to 103 women who were victims of involuntary prostitution. Some local officials discouraged the prosecution of those who exploited prostitutes. There were no convictions under the provision of the law criminalizing the act of engaging the services of a prostitute.
Sex tourism and trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation and forced labor were serious problems.
The law prohibits sexual harassment. However, sexual harassment in the workplace was widespread and underreported due to victims’ fear of losing their jobs. Sexual harassment at a shoe factory in Muntinlupa City spurred unionization and a strike in July; in November management reinstated dismissed employees and recognized the workers’ union.Female employees in special economic zones were particularly at risk; most were economic migrants who had no independent workers’ organization to assist with filing complaints. Women in the retail industry worked on three- to five month contracts and were often reluctant to report sexual harassment for fear their contracts would not be renewed. There were reports that some firms took action against female employees who became pregnant.
The law does not provide for divorce, although courts generally recognize the legality of divorces obtained in other countries if one of the parties is a foreign national. The government recognizes religious annulment, but the process can be costly, which precludes annulment as an option for many women. Many lower-income couples simply separated informally without severing their marital ties. The family code provides that in child custody cases resulting from annulment, illegitimacy, or divorce in another country, children under the age of seven are placed in the care of the mother unless there is a court order to the contrary. Children over the age of seven normally also remained with the mother, although the father could dispute custody through the courts.
In law, but not always in practice, women have most of the rights and protections accorded to men. Although they faced workplace discrimination, women continued to occupy senior positions in the workforce. In a January labor force survey, 57 percent of government officials, corporate executives, managers, and supervisors were women. The unemployment rate for women was 6.7 percent, while the rate for men was 7.8 percent.
The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, composed of 10 government officials and 11 NGO leaders appointed by the president, acted as an oversight body whose goal is to press for effective implementation of programs benefiting women.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eap/119054.htm
This month as the Philippines marks Women’s month, the National Commissioin on the Role of Filipino Women has picked the theme “Babae, Yaman Ka Ng Bayan [Woman, You Are The Nation’s Treasure” as theme.
This rah-rah slogan aside, the NCRFW reports:
In 2008 the number of Violence Against Women (VAW) cases reported to the police rose by 21 percent from the 2007 report. The increase caused the trend to go upward after a six-year downward trend from 2001 to 2006 and that for the past twelve years since 1997, the trend peaked at a record high of 9,132 VAW cases in 2001.
Against the backdrop of Nicole’s decision to leave behind her court battle in exchange for the promise of a materially-secure future and peace of mind, those who fought militantly for her honor must now move on. The struggle to win justice for thousands of other suffering Filipinas must still be fought.
Popularity: 1% [?]
The struggle is harder when “the enemy” is Pilipino.
Try using the ‘more’ tag, Ding. That way only the first couple of paragraphs of your article appear on the home page of FV.
And yes I agree. Fighting for anything that lacks substance is pointless. The real ‘fight’ lies in the effort to acquire said substance. :D
Maybe indeed, the next door Nicole opened and whatever world it is, ceases to be our business altogether.
As my classmate psychologist, Dr. Sylvia Claudio did say, she should be allowed to move on. So Ding, let the lady have a life.
Ding,
I am with you on those noon time shows, which are daily and raucous and just plain nasty. I blame Willie Revillame for many of those 8000 filipino on young filipina rapes that have occurred since Subic 2005, because he is a living walking demon of prurient interest.
In Wowwowee and its look alikes, we find the true under belly and diseased pudenda of the modern Filipino psyche. Imagine what Daniel Smith’s grandmother must be thinking and grieving over whenever she watches TFC in North America and finds that Wowowee to be the most popular of all the shows.
Those 8000 rapists are just ordinary folks too without imperialist power, but who can fantasize they are Willie with his wiggling worm.
Manong,
The network and the advertisers are really the purveyors of shows that diminish the Filipina.
Maybe now is the time the media outfits here the Philippines.
Now is the time to raise the bar of respect to the Filipina. Tama na po and mga rhetoric at kung anu ano pa. It’s time to move para wala ng matulad kay Nicole dito sa atin.
It is also time to move on with this case and focus on other rape case na hindi pa rin nareresolba sa mga courts naten.
I feel the Philippine Daily Inquirer made an unethical move to publish Nicole’s photo. After all, despite her so-called “recantation”, she is still a rape victim. When we covered the case of Jalosjos, when I was still working in the media, we never saw his victim. All we got are pictures when she was around eight. Though she might have looked differently when the case got media attention, we decided to cover the eyes with black tape to prevent recognition even if that was already remotely possible. I think what Inquirer did was in bad taste.
Eynriche,
In the strictest sense, not really given how Suzette decided to blow the entire case open. It was not only the Inquirer that broke its embargo. MSM did and I subscribe to the same.
I was in MSM newsrooms for 18 years … I would have done the same.
All in the name of a scoop?
No.
Then what could have prompted the publication of her photo?
The rule of thumb is when there is an ‘implied embargo’, if in the editor/s assessment the subject sought to be ‘protected’ by the embargo no longer is entitled to it, editorial prerogative is exercised.
In the case of Suzette given that she suddenly reversed her long held story that she was raped, a story that she maintained and was enough to convince the judge that the crime did occur, then the credibility of Suzette that merited the embargo protection had lost its footing.
Those “wiggling worms” are human beings trying to make a living, trying to keep their noses above water by the only ways available to them.
Some of them might even be from the remotest barrios, from parents who has no chance or ideas on how we here in FV came about having our top-of-the-line pcs, ranting about our coconut’s bright ideas acquired through the good fortunes that befell the blessed sons and daughters of a bias God, imposing our own ideas of morality on those hapless creatures.
I can only comment. We really live in a Crazy
Country. All sorts of Clowns are in our midst.
We dont need Carnivals and Circuses. Just look
at our Politicians and you will be entertained.
Get raped by an American Soldier, and get a
Green Card too…live happily ever after in the
good Old U.S.A.
Explicit or implicit two-year embargo could have been long enough time of intellectual convalescence.
Thus, it is pretty bound to be breached when the Fourth Estate, out of a sense of public duty, has to decide to post what should be posted. The Inquirer, to my mind, did the right thing.
Thanks KP.
It’s gratifying the the point of the post resonates.
In ‘emblematic’ cases such as this the perspective of MSM and journalist bloggers converge and such an occasion validates, in my mind, that there are causes still worth believing in, and fighting for.
Nicole cannot be blamed of what has happened. Pressures from the Philippine Government, the United States and her own family especially her mother who is “utak pulbura” has led her to that decision.
It is never easy for a rape victim to tell her story and stand her ground through such pressures. In the first place, when Nicole revealed before the world that she had been raped it was the government officials who released statements to defend Smith.
Now that the so-called “recantation” controversy has flooded the minds of ordinary Filipinos. Filipinos ranting in anger over Nicole’s recantation and hurling her undue criticisms stand blind before the real US hand working behind the scene. The statement has tested the waters and will soon reveal a CA decision acquitting Smith amidst all these public rage on Nicole.
Nicole case has proven us three things:
1.The Filipino society’s view of women- Sex objects and on the one hand a private property
2.The Visiting Forces Agreement serves only the US interest, secondary is the elites interest. It is unconstitutional, it has grossly violated our country’s sovereignty and patrimony.
3. The Philippine government is nothing but a puppet of the US government *inutile*
Abrogate the VFA! Scrap VFA!
There's the enemy within that has to be dealt with first before going to more challenging things. Being able to look at another person as an individual first, not as a man – woman, filipino or foreigner, christian or muslim etc…may be a good start. And being able to think of oneself as a person, an individual, not dependent on anyone for existence (other than your mother who gave you birth) is another way.