House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco urged Wednesday an end to the “pervasive” cycle of violence against women and children.
In a virtual forum initiated by the House Committee on Women and Gender Equality, chaired by Bukidnon Rep. Maria Lourdes Acosta-Alba, he expressed his all-out support to the 18-day Campaign to End Violence Against Women (VAW) from Nov. 25 to Dec. 12.
“Women hold up half the sky and the degree of their self-actualization determines the progress of our society. But, how could we truly progress if statistics show that one out of four Filipino women aged 15 to 49 has experience physical, emotional, or sexual violence from their husband or partner?This violence is pervasive, and cuts across age. race, skin color, religion, ethnicity, and gender identity,” he said during the three-hour forum on the “State of Local Response Mechanisms for Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Violence Against Women (VAW)."
Citing the World Health Organization (WHO) global estimate, he noted that one out of three women have experienced either physical and or mental sexual violance from an intimate partner or non-partner in their lifetime.
Velasco described as “completely unacceptable” and alarming the reported increasing gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Unfortunately, because of the community lockdowns due to the global pandemic, reports of gender based violence have increased. An average of eight women per day were maltreated or raped across the country from March 17 to May 23 alone. This is completely unacceptable and a very serious cause for concern,” Velasco said.
He cited the pressing need to raise public awareness about the pervasive problem of gender-based violence.
"With your forum, I look forward to seeing how we can improve our processes to make the local response mechanism to gender-based violence more effective,” the House chief said.
"Violence against women and girls is a social ill that must never be normalized, All of us are affected and all of us must do our part to end it,” he added.
Citing studies, Velasco said the single best predicter of children of becoming either perpetrator or victims of domestic violence later in life is whether or not they grow up in a home where there is domestic violence. "Let us help end this cycle of violence and let us honor and protect the other half of the sky.”
The virtual forum was conducted in observance of the 2020 18-Day Campaign to End VAW with the theme “VAW-Free Community Starts with Me.”