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Silence means rape
Nene (not her real name) is a frail 11-year old girl from a remote island village in Capiz. She was one of the beneficiaries of a surgical mission in Roxas City last year. Nene needed surgery for what her parent’s suspected was a cyst in the ovary. Luck was on Nene’s side. The team of specialists in the mission included Dr. Soccoro Bernardino who is a Pediatric-Adolescent G
ynecologist and surgeon at the same time. She is one of the very few doctors in the country with that combined specialization.
During Nene’s operation the doctors had very shocking findings: She had no ovarian cyst. Instead, her abdomen was bloated because her intestines were infected, entangled and inflamed. Doctors had to clean and untangle them right away and started her on a rigid antibiotic treatment.
Worst, the medical team discovered that the infection was caused by an untreated sexually transmitted disease which already crept to her lower abdomen and damaged her ovaries. Doctors also noted that her reproductive organ had lacerations that have partly healed. She could have been raped months, or even a year ago. Weeks before her operation, she was already having unexplained fever and felt physically weak as the infection spread.
After the operation, we decided to talk to her parents who appeared dumbfounded over the findings. Both claimed they had no inkling that she had been raped or sexually molested by anyone. Nene’s father in particular, seemed agitated and restless. They were urged to seek counseling from DSWD and report the matter to police. Barely an hour later Nene’s father disappeared and never showed up at the hospital again, while her mother turned uncooperative in the ensuing investigation. Nene was eventually discharged to the DSWD.
No one knows for sure if Nene is a victim of incest rape or even just rape by strangers as she refuses to talk. But her case is typical of rape in remote rural communities in the Philippines. In most cases where a father or a relative is involved, other family members (mothers or other siblings) tend to conspire to keep it a secret and spare the family’s name from shame.
In the Bicol region where rape sometimes stands on equal footing with physical injuries and murder as top crimes, the government has already taken a more proactive approach in dealing with the rape menace.
At the Sorsogon Provincial Hospital for instance, a special room is appointed as counseling area for rape victims and battered women. For a hospital barely equipped with essential medical facilities, space or manpower having a dedicated room to counsel rape victims only means one thing—- that rape is rampant in the area but they are doing something about it.
The approach underlines the need not just for law enforcers or social workers but for medical personnel and everyone else to reach out to victims of rape and abuse who keep their stories under wraps. Hospitals are often the first places many victims go to in an emergency. The hospital can also give immediate medical and psychological assistance while reporting these cases to law enforcers.
Cotabato Representative Emmylou Talino-Mendoza cites, rape statistics in the country is on the rise. Quoting National Police statistics of 2009, a total of 3, 159 rape cases were reported all over the country with Metro Manila topping the list with 466 rape incidents followed by Western Visayas, 429; Central Luzon, 316; Calabarzon, 312; Bicol, 293; Southern Mindanao, 203; Central Visayas, 160; and Mimaropa, 153; Ilocos, 145; Northern Mindanao, 144; Eastern Visayas, 119; Western Mindanao, 109; Cordillera, 93; Caraga, 78; Central Mindanao, 73; Cagayan Valley, 53; and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, 13. Mendoza believes this is only half of the real number of cases hushed up especially in remote areas. That’s why a more belligerent campaign against rape and women or child abuse is necessary.
And it is not just the law enforcers’ duty to curb rape. Social workers, hospitals, schools and even communities can help report rape to authorities. Anyone can give a voice, even to a victim who refuses to speak.
Although rape is punishable by death in this country, its perpetrators persist. But they do not really thrive on the weakness of their victims and it is not that they are unfazed by capital punishment.
Many times it is the silence of their prey that really makes them powerful and fearless.
