Battered women who want to recover their self-esteem should invoke Republic Act (RA) 9262 “Anti-Violence Against Women and Children even if our justice system is slow and at times exasperating.

HOTLINE FOR ABUSED WOMEN is +632-922-5235 or +632-926-7744
Donations in cash and kind are welcome at the Women’s Crisis Center, 3F ER-Trauma Extension, Annex Building of the East Avenue Medical Center in Diliman , Quezon City

I think that violence at home, or between intimate partners, is as abhorrent as violence of any kind. It destroys not only the trust and love between partners, it also kills the human spirit. And while physical bruises may heal, the deeper scars and damage is inflicted to the psyche and to the soul. First of all, I think women who have been physically abused should realize that they are not powerless and that they can do something to get out of it. I think reclaiming one’s own power to change a situation, however hopeless it may seem, is the most important first step to take in rebuilding one’s self-esteem. Instead of blaming, or looking for excuses, facing the situation head on and deciding things are going to change is already a turning point and heading in the right direction.—Tippi Ocampo, fashion designer

A man is never justified in beating any woman. It is not just about his inability to control rage, although that may be a factor. More importantly, it is a symptom of a broader societal malaise that nurtures violence and accepts the subjugation of women to men. He is a product of a macho culture that accepts this behavior and even emulates it. It is a criminal behavior that should never be condoned by friends, relatives, and neighbors.

A battered woman should build a support group around her. She needs reassurance that there are people around her who love and care for her and that she can survive outside the abusive relationship. She should also seek professional counseling. Often, battered women are trapped in a cycle of violence where they often justify the behavior of their abusive partners and end up going back in their arms only to be abused again. She has to realize that any form of violence on her is never justified. —Ingrid Gorre, lawyer

Read more at What women say about domestic violence

This is my final warning to Tim Cumper or otherwise known as Timothy Ellis Cumper, UK citizen who has been writing libelous entries about me, and stalking my friends after I wrote this entry Interview with Mayen in April 2008.

Mr. Tim Cumper,

Cease and desist online stalking and harassment to my friends, family members and my facebook & blogger friends. Read your UK Law on Cyber-stalking and harassment. http://www.wiredsafety.org/gb/stalking/. To quote:

Similarly if someone in England and Wales is harassing someone abroad by means of letters e-mails etc. and the Police in England and Wales are informed of this then the offender could be arrested for criminal harassment and prosecuted regardless of the fact the victim was abroad.

Stop it now because I have legal remedies I can use if you continue to do so.

——

Since April 2008, I have pretty much ignored TIm Cumper’s defamatory posts and photos against me. After all, he is entitled to his own opinion. I have ignored this issue for so long now but lately, my friends are being harassed online via facebook (his facebook name is cumper tim) and getting spam messages.

I have rested my case on this since April 2008.

There is nothing else I can do. I am not a detective or an investigative journalist. I am a blogger. Mr. Tim Cumper needs to do his own private investigation to seek the truth.

*Edit (September 6)- After April 2008, a group of bloggers picked up my story. I have no control over their entries or their opinion.

- Mr Tim Cumper, you were given the right to post here, the right to reply, the right to post and defame our character in your 60 plus websites (practically spamming the whole internet). You gravely abused the right to reply in our comments section by stalking, harassing and maligning the Filipina Images readers just because they did not agree with you. You accuse us of being scam supporters. Not only that, you continue to call me a corrupt liar and being part of Tierra Maria Estates.

Your right to reply is through your over 60 websites.

UK offers help for victims abroad. Read the leaflet. But it is only for those victims of a crime. Was there really a crime? Were you scammed? Was money sent to the Philippines? Get legal advice instead of harassing me and my friends.

Edit (September 12)
Tim Cumper sent an email trying to communicate but at the same time accusing me —“We know that it was you who set up the group on FaceBook – that was good fun wasn’t it?” There you go Tim Cumper….I just joined the group upon an invitation and contributed the to the list of friends stalked and harassed by Tim Cumper in Facebook. I refuse to communicate with such accusations. He better provide proof before making such accusations.

You have been warned to cease and desist and I will exercise my legal rights if you continue to stalk and harass me and my friends.

This is my final warning.

For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on August signed into law the measure prohibiting discrimination against women, and recognizing and promoting their rights.

Republic Act 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women, signed at the Heroes Hall in Malacañang Palace, ensures women’s equitable participation and representation in government, political parties, international bodies, civil service and the private sector.

RA 9710 recognizes and protects women’s rights at home, at work and in all spheres of society toward developing all aspects of their well-being. Its most salient features include increasing the number of women personnel until they fill half of third-level positions in the government, setting up in every barangay (village) a “violence against women’s desk,” providing incentives to parties with women’s agenda and barring the derogatory portrayal of women in media and film.

The new law’s most “empowering provision” is its recognition that “women’s rights are human rights,” Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chair Leila de Lima told reporters after the 10 a.m. signing.
(more…)

I chanced upon this Review of MARISOL (2009)—a film directed by Hella Wenders; cinematography by Merle Jothe; produced by Barbara Mutschler and Florian Gerstenberg ; German Film and Television School, Berlin, Germany.

by E. San Juan, Jr.,
Fellow, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University

We live in the era of the global commons, but very few have actually met their neighbors—except as subalterns: household maids, hotel service-workers, nannies, most likely college-educated women from the Philippines. The ubiquitous phenomenon of Filipina domestics and overseas contract workers (almost ten million), known also as Overseas Filipino workers (OFW), has become a tedious and soporific topic for cynics and skeptics. Scholars have categorized them as modern indentured servants of the global ecumene. If you mention that at least five OFW cadavers/coffins arrive everyday at the Manila International Airport, a big yawn greets you: “So what else is new?” Those still awake may prod: “Why? How did this happen?”

Like millions around the world devastated by global capitalism’s meltdown, the lives of migrant Filipinas/as have become redundant or disposable. This began in the 1970s. The Marcos dictatorship, supported chiefly by the United States and the IMF-World Bank, institutionalized the export of “warm bodies” to the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. In the neoliberal global market, the nationality label “Filipino” quickly became equivalent to “servant” or “maid” in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and elsewhere. After 9/11, the terrorist Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines may have eclipsed the OFWs. But with the continual brutalization of Filipinas in Okinawa, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and the “Nicole” scandal (“Nicole” is the Filipina raped by an American soldier subsequently convicted but “kidnapped” by the US Embassy while his case is on appeal), with hundreds in jail or awaiting execution, their plight will continue to haunt the conscience of “the pillars of society.” It may even disturb the sleep of State functionaries whose salaries depend on OFW remittances.

Continue reading at THE FILIPINA FEMALE GAZE: A review of MARISOL, a film by Hella Wenders