End impunity
FACEBOOK can make and break relationships. It can also be a means to help women and their children escape abusive relationships.
It was through the social networking site that Nelia was first informed by husband Paul that he was going to marry his lover in Japan; he wanted to annul his marriage with Nelia; and that he was abandoning his family in Cebu. (Real names are not used.)
Nelia and Paul’s children even saw their father’s change of Facebook status from “married” to “in a relationship.”
Despite the betrayal and trauma inflicted callously via the online portal, Nelia and her children gathered sufficient evidence to convince the Talisay City Prosecutor’s Office to indict Paul for violating Republic Act (RA) 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2004).
Online trail
In the Nov. 14 Sun.Star Cebu report by Davinci S. Maru and Kevin A. Lagunda, Facebook made it convenient for Paul to sever his ties with Nelia, escape his responsibilities as a husband and father, and avoid messy confrontations with the loved ones he abandoned.
However, Facebook also preserved an electronic trail that showed through chats, posts and even change of status how he inflicted emotional and economic abuse on his wife and children.
RA 9262 provides in Section 3 that violence committed against women covers all acts carried out against a wife, former wife, a woman with whom the accused has had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a child.
Violence against children is defined by the same law as acts committed against the welfare of one’s legitimate or illegitimate children.
RA 9262 shields women and children from violence that can be physical, sexual, psychological or economic, including threats of such acts.
No digital secrets
Netizens are advised to be discreet and careful online since everything that’s posted in the Web can be retrieved or shared.
It’s a principle that should, at the very least, make people think twice about electronically preserving remembrances of their infidelities; at most, about betraying their spouses and children.
For although not all philanderers are crass or stupid enough to give their unknowing partners evidence of their hanky-panky, an abuser like Robert was still charged by the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office of violating RA 9262.
A link to a photo of Robert having intercourse with another woman was sent to the Facebook account of his live-in partner Merry.
As reported by Sun.Star Cebu’s Lagunda and Maru last Oct. 4, there was sufficient evidence to charge Robert with two counts of violating RA 9262 since his partner of four years also complained that he was giving her and their daughter only P1,000 every payday.
Surviving abuse
As women’s right advocates have learned, there’s a lot more needed to actualize the shield and haven that the law provides for abused women and children.
According to the Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation and the Women’s Crisis Center, the vision of violence-free homes and communities can be achieved if services for vulnerable groups are enhanced; court watches are set up; continuing education is given to service providers; and an electronic monitoring system is maintained for cases.
Consultations in 2011 among members of the Regional Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Trafficking and Violence against Women and Their Children emphasized that many victims of abuse have difficulty in getting protection orders from barangays or the court. Protection orders will ensure that abusers will be immediately barred from approaching and continuing to inflict more violence on their victims.
Central to surviving abuse, though, is the will of the victim to fight back against the abuser. Many women endure abuse and many children remain abandoned by parents who should be giving financial and other forms of support because they are unable to break their silence an d seek justice.
For Nelia, Merry and their children, Facebook might have brought them low. However, they did not allow themselves to remain victims by tapping the very means that once made them vulnerable.