Date Rape in the Philippines
Chapter I
Introduction
“He said he loved me”, “I woke up without any clothes on, I couldn’t remember”, “I thought we were friends”. These are just some of the phrases that a lot of rape victims have reiterated. Women that have long been taken advantage of for men’s sexual pleasure, it is the same in every country, not just in the Philippines. Women have been fighting all throughout their history to gain equality, to rise from oppression, to release themselves from male domination, that fight is still ongoing. There is a quotation from the bible taken from genesis II lines 21-23; “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man”. Many theologians have interpreted this passage to mean a general sense of equality between the sexes, that women were created from men, and therefore are part of them, taken from his ribs, near his heart, at his side: this symbolizes that women are not to be stepped on but are to be loved.
From this age old teaching to the Philippines’ present revised penal code, the fact remains true; that women are to be upheld in society as human beings themselves, not objects to be used. “A total of three thousand three hundred fifty-nine rape cases were reported to the authorities countrywide in the twelve months of 2009”(Taliño-Mendoza, 2010). To be presented with such numbers, it is alarming to see how women in this modern age can be sexually assaulted, and with the numbers rising; there is most certainly a need to study rape crimes. Understanding rape crimes may help find a solution for the decrease of these incidents from happening, which is what the research aims to do. Upon the inquisition of rape crimes’ most common modus operandi, the
Introduction
“He said he loved me”, “I woke up without any clothes on, I couldn’t remember”, “I thought we were friends”. These are just some of the phrases that a lot of rape victims have reiterated. Women that have long been taken advantage of for men’s sexual pleasure, it is the same in every country, not just in the Philippines. Women have been fighting all throughout their history to gain equality, to rise from oppression, to release themselves from male domination, that fight is still ongoing. There is a quotation from the bible taken from genesis II lines 21-23; “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man”. Many theologians have interpreted this passage to mean a general sense of equality between the sexes, that women were created from men, and therefore are part of them, taken from his ribs, near his heart, at his side: this symbolizes that women are not to be stepped on but are to be loved.
From this age old teaching to the Philippines’ present revised penal code, the fact remains true; that women are to be upheld in society as human beings themselves, not objects to be used. “A total of three thousand three hundred fifty-nine rape cases were reported to the authorities countrywide in the twelve months of 2009”(Taliño-Mendoza, 2010). To be presented with such numbers, it is alarming to see how women in this modern age can be sexually assaulted, and with the numbers rising; there is most certainly a need to study rape crimes. Understanding rape crimes may help find a solution for the decrease of these incidents from happening, which is what the research aims to do. Upon the inquisition of rape crimes’ most common modus operandi, the