Casiño: Men hurt, too, by violence vs women

DAVAO CITY—Victims of violence against women are not the only ones suffering from psychological and physical anguish as their friends and families, including men, also hurt from their painful ordeals, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said.

“It’s an attack on our dignity as persons. It condemns our humanity,” said Casiño, an honorary member of the so-called V-Men group.

V-Men is a group formed by organizers of One Billion Rising (OBR) campaign, a movement which seeks to generate international uproar against violence committed on women and support for campaigns to stop it.

“Every act of violence against women not only affects women but also men like me. It affects the men and women around her, her parents, her brothers and sisters, her children, her friends,” Casiño said.

The Davao-born Casiño, who had helped write such laws as the national policy on reproductive health, anti-child pornography and the comprehensive juvenile justice system, said violence against women is a fight that should be taken up by every Filipino.

“I believe that a society that tolerates this type of human rights violation is a society that is not fit to nurture our children,” Casiño said.

On Feb. 14, some 2,000 men and women, wearing fuchsia-colored shirts and dresses, gathered at Rizal Park here and registered their collective rage against all forms of violence against women.

“We cannot be still while women and girls are being raped, beaten, or hurt in any way. Every person dancing and rising with us is registering collective rage at the violence inflicted on women and, at the same time, committing to action against it,” said Mary Ann Sapar, regional spokesperson of Gabriela Women’s Party.

The Davao leg of the OBR campaign was led by Gabriela, Gabriela Women’s Party and Women’s Studies and Resource Center.

“Women and men are rising because the violence must stop,” Sapar said. She said cases of violence against women occur every 37 minutes in the Philippines.

In this city alone, she said five cases of domestic violence are reported daily. Allan Nawal and Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao