As-Salamu Alaykum. Peace be upon you.
I
am very grateful for the invitation extended to me to be the guest of
honor in your 10 day training for Women and Children Protection Desk
Officers closing ceremonies.
I
am always happy when the Philippine National Police invites me to speak
in any of your trainings. Attributed perhaps to the fact that I am the
wife of a policeman. And also because I have always always believed that
an intelligent and socially aware police force is an asset of the
nation.
I
am extremely happy more so in this occasion to speak in front of you
because you have just recently finished a training that specifically
gears you to become better police officers particularly on women and
children’s concerns.
The
trainings that you just so recently finished is important. “The 2008
National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) posited the following
statistics that:
- one in five women aged 15-49 has experienced physical violence since age 15;
- (37%) of separated or widowed women have experienced physical violence,
- one in twenty five women age 15-49 who have ever had sex experienced forced first sexual intercourse;
- in 2010 the number of VAW cases reported to the Philippine National Police (PNP) rose by 59.2 percent from the 2009 report.”#
In
an article published in bulatlat.com# a left leaning on-line
publication it stated that “one child is raped every two hours and 30
minutes,” and that “one child becomes a victim of sexual harassment
every seven hours.” The author further wrote that in January 2000 to
August 2011 some 500,000 women fell victim to prostitution and 100,000
of these victims were children.
These
grim statistics tells us how pressing and urgent is the need to have an
effective and efficient response to the situation faced by every
Filipina woman and her child.
These
is where our well equipped and well trained police force comes in. Your
participation in the ten day training tells me that you are the
frontliners of your police station or your unit when it comes to women
and children’s issues.
I
Googled your training module and I found out that it includes gender
sensitivity, specialized investigation techniques and basic orientation
on laws involving women and children.
I
am impressed with the content. It gave me hope that no matter how
depressing the statistics are, there are police officers like you who
are trained to respond to these specific problems.
I
am more so hopeful that we have numerous laws that protect our women
and children like the Anti-Rape Law of 1997, the Rape Victim Assistance
and Protection Act of 1998, Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, The
Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and
Discrimination , The Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act
and the Magna Carta Of Women.
I
can go on and on about the numerous laws and rules that protect our
women and children but without a highly trained police force to enforce
them, all these laws will amount to nothing.
That
is how important your ten day training was and I hope that what you
have learned here you will bring back to your “tropa” and enforce and
implement them correctly.
I can speak more about children, women and heck even about loving a policeman but I would already be taking up your time and I know that you are tired and raring to go home so I will end these speech with a thank you for the invitation and a reminder that no matter how unrecognized and only the bad cops are featured in the news most of the time we know that in the past ten days you have been a party to a training that would mean a lot in improving the plight of women and children. Congratulations and God Speed*
Speech given as guest of honor for the closing ceremony of the Specialized Course for WCPD Officers.
Sources: http://pcw.gov.ph/statistics/201205/statistics-violence-against-filipino-women
http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/03/09/statistics-on-various-crimes-against-women-alarming-%E2%80%93-cwr/
