DIANA Murugesan, an Indian national studying Medicine in Davao City, was walking home from a hospital where she is training to be a doctor. When she arrived at a tricycle terminal near a popular fast-food chain beside a mall in Bajada, drivers started catcalling and wolf-whistling her. She thought nothing about it because she had passed by the area several times already and they do this every time.
However, this time it was different.
"It's been happening for two months already. They kept whistling and mocking me but I didn't really understand Bisaya so I didn't know what they were telling me and didn't mind at all," Murugesan revealed in an interview.
She thought they were just being friendly to her.
However, at that time she felt it was different because some of them had already surrounded her and she felt “unsafe”.
Diana recalled immediately hailing a taxi and prompting the driver to bring her to the nearest police station.
However, one of the biggest disappointments of her life came when she was told by the police officer manning the desk that she had to report the incident to the barangay where it happened, as what they could do was to “blotter” it down for support when she decides to file a case.
Safe Spaces Act (Bawal Bastos Law) or the Republic Act No. 11313 was enacted into law in April 2019. It was signed by former President Rodrigo Duterte to increase protection against sexual harassment whether online or in the physical space. This covers all forms of gender-based sexual harassment (GBSH) committed in public spaces, educational or training institutions, workplaces, and online spaces.
However, only a few may have heard and understood the law and all the nuances it encompasses.
According to the data from the Philippine National Police-Crime Incident Reporting and Analysis System (PNP-Ciras), formerly the e-blotter system, in which all crime incidents reported to the police stations are electronically stored in a database, there were 414 cases of Safe Spaces Act violations in 2022, and it increased significantly in 2023 with 632 from January to November 15, 2023 alone.
Few cases reported in Davao City
However, in Davao City, there were not as many with only five cases in 2022 and a case reported in 2023.
According to Commission on Human Rights-Davao Region (CHR-Davao) Gender and Development (GAD) focal lawyer Jennidy S. Tambor, one of the factors for the low case reporting on Safe Spaces Act violation is the public’s unawareness of the law.
Davao City has been implementing its Women Development Code or City Ordinance No. 5003 since 2003 after its passage in October of that same year, long before the national law was crafted and implemented.
The Women Development Code of Davao City was signed by former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte, the same person who signed the Safe Spaces Act when he became president.
In Section 8 were the forms of sexual harassment which are violative of the ordinance. Among them is the persistent telling of offensive jokes such as green jokes or other analogous statements to someone who finds them offensive or humiliating; taunting a person with constant talk about sex and sexual innuendos; making offensive hand or body gestures at someone; staring or leering maliciously; and cursing, whistling or calling a woman in public with words having dirty connotations or implications which tend to ridicule, humiliate or embarrass the woman such as “p*ta”, “b*ring”, “p*ste”, etc.
Atty. Tambor said the implementor of the Safe Spaces Act is the local government unit, based on its localized ordinance derived from the national law.
“Actually, what the LGU can do is to create a hotline for the Safe Spaces Act, and also pwede pud niya patas-an ang penalty aron mas ma-implement og tarong (it can also increase the penalty for the violators so that the law can be implemented properly)” Tambor said.
Meanwhile, Davao City’s Integrated Gender and Development Division Head Lorna Mandin said for the part of the city government, the division has been conducting several seminars and lectures at the barangay level, along with the Women and Children’s Desk of the Davao City Police Office.
She said the seminars and lectures they are conducting are not only for the women but also for the whole residents so that they will be aware of the law and the penalties it carries, and empower the barangay officials to implement the law at their level.
Call for proactive reactions from authorities
However, the CHR-Davao also sees another factor on why there were only few reports of Safe Spaces Act violations is the process it would take so that the victims get the justice they deem fit.
“Society-wise, gina-let go ni nga case kay ang hassle (this case is always being let go because of the hassle),” she said.
Diana agrees with Tambor’s statement, saying that the process is “ridiculous”.
“I did not report the incident anymore to the barangay because I was expecting the police to help me but they did not, how could I trust the barangay to help me?”
She also revealed that after relating her ordeal to her classmates, she was stunned to learn that some of them have even experienced more cruel sexual harassment like groping and kissing from strangers when they walked alone from their night classes.
With this, Tambor emphasized that every victim of harassment under the Safe Spaces Act should file a case so that those who have the intention will be afraid to commit violations.
For their part, CHR-Davao is also conducting promotional activities, seminars, and lectures about the “powerful law” that covers not only women but all genders. They often target the Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations (TODAs) for the participants not only to be aware but become “protectors” of women.
“In fact, nag-lecture mi sa mga TODA, daghan naka-realize nila nga ilang mga lihok is bawal na diay (We conducted lectures for the TODA, most of them realized that what they were doing were wrong),” Tambor said
However, she admitted that they have not conducted the same in Davao City with the assumption that being a highly urbanized place, it is active in women’s rights activities.
This law is kind of special because, unlike other violations against women and other gender laws where there mostly are tangible criteria, the Safe Spaces Act depends on the victim’s perception of the message of the offender.
“It depends on the victim kung na-threaten ba siya . Depende sa iyang pag-receive sa (whether she felt threatened. Depending on how she received the) message. So it’s not automatic for enforcers to arrest the offender kung naay manitsit or mag-catcall kay victim-based ni nga law, depende sa na-feel sa victim (if some will wolf-whistle or catcall because it is a victim-based law, it depends on how the victim feels),” Tambor said.
However, she hopes that everyone is empowered to use this law as with other laws. CEA
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