MANILA, Philippines – “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 Gynecologist 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 were shocked with their 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.

Violated and infected

The medical team also discovered that the infection was caused by an untreated sexually transmitted disease (STD) which had already crept to her lower abdomen. Doctors also noted that her reproductive organ had lacerations that have partly healed. She could have been raped months, or even a year before.

Weeks prior to her operation, she was already having unexplained fever and felt physically weak as the infection spread.

After the surgery, we decided to talk to her parents who appeared dumbfounded by 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 with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and report the matter to police.

Family secrets uncovered

Barely an hour later Nene’s father disappeared, and never showed up at the hospital again. Her mother, meanwhile, turned uncooperative in the ensuing investigation.

Nene was eventually placed under the care of the DSWD.

No one knows for sure if Nene is a victim of incest rape or was raped by strangers as she refuses to talk.

Her case, however, 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.

Proactive against rape

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 designated as a counseling area for rape victims and battered women. For a hospital barely equipped with essential medical facilities, space or even manpower, having a dedicated room to counsel rape victims only means one thing--- that rape is rampant in the area.

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. A hospitals is often the first place many victims go to in an emergency. The hospital can also give immediate medical and psychological assistance while reporting these cases to the authorities.

Rape incidents on the rise

Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza cites, rape statistics in the country is on the rise. Quoting National Police crime figures in 2009, a total of 3,159 rape cases were reported all over the country.
Metro Manila topped 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 by reporting rape cases. 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 capital punishment is not disconcerting enough.

Many times it is the silence of their victim that really makes them feel powerful and all the more, fearless.