From Protectors to Perpetrators: Women’s group slams rising state-perpetrated VAW cases, demands accountability and an end to impunity

Center for Women's Resources In the News 0 Comment

The Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), a research and training institution advancing women’s rights, condemns the continuing rise in violence against women (VAW) perpetrated by men in uniform, including members of the police and military, and calls for urgent action to end impunity within state security institutions.

CWR’s monitoring documented at least 40 cases of state-perpetrated VAW from 2022 to 2025. These cases involved physical assault, rape, sexual harassment, molestation, domestic abuse, and the killing of women and children. In 2025 alone, reports involving abusive police and military personnel surfaced almost monthly, reflecting what women’s groups describe as a deeply entrenched culture of violence and impunity.

The recent case of Aira Seda Dela Cruz has intensified public outrage. Viral CCTV footage allegedly showed her husband, Police Officer Alimeri Dela Cruz, physically assaulting her inside their home in Malolos, Bulacan. The video, which Aira herself shared publicly, showed the officer repeatedly striking her until she lost consciousness. The incident prompted the Philippine National Police (PNP) to relieve the officer from duty pending investigation.

“For every case that reaches the public, countless others remain hidden behind fear, intimidation, and institutional silence,” said Cham Perez, executive director of CWR. “Cases like Aira’s are not isolated incidents. They expose a systemic problem in institutions that continue to tolerate abuse within their ranks while failing to ensure justice for women survivors.”

CWR stressed that violence perpetrated by state forces extends beyond domestic abuse. State-perpetrated VAW includes custodial rape, sexual violence during military operations, harassment committed by state officials, abuse within police and military institutions, and violence against women and children in militarized communities.

According to CWR’s monitoring of official government data, at least 13,211 total number of VAW cases were recorded in 2025 — equivalent to around 36 women experiencing violence every day. However, these numbers represent only a fraction of actual cases. Estimates from the PNP Women and Children Protection Center suggest that only one in ten incidents of violence against women is reported, indicating that the true number of survivors may exceed 130,000 annually.

CWR also raised alarm over the continuing failure to hold men in uniform accountable in cases of abuse, warning that institutional protectionism and weak accountability mechanisms continue to reinforce a culture of impunity. “The uniform must never become a shield for abuse,” Perez said. “Women and children deserve protection, not violence from those mandated to uphold public safety and human rights.”

CWR called on the administration of Bongbong Marcos, the PNP, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to take concrete actions to end impunity and hold perpetrators within their ranks accountable. It urged authorities to institute independent oversight and civilian accountability mechanisms, guarantee impartial, and transparent investigation of abuse cases, and provision of survivor-centered protection and support systems. The group also stressed the need for mandatory and sustained gender sensitivity and human rights education within uniformed services and the full implementation of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act and the Magna Carta of Women.“

At a time when violence against women remains widespread, the state cannot remain complicit through inaction, let alone allow its own agents to become perpetrators of abuse and violence against women. Those entrusted to protect the public must be held to the highest standard of accountability” Perez emphasized. The women’s movement, she added, will continue to call out these systemic abuses and work toward a future where women and children are free from violence and abuse.

Paying tribute to mothers: Call for an end to poverty, social injustice, and violence This Mother’s Day

Center for Women's Resources Advocacy, Resources 0 Comment

This Mother’s Day, the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), a 37-year research and training institution for women, urges the public to genuinely pay tribute to mothers not only by recognizing their sacrifices as homemaker, but also by calling for an end to societal ills that burden all mothers, especially those who belong to the marginalized sectors.

Women continue to be shortchanged and robbed when it comes to social services. Because of widespread government corruption, women struggle to get the healthcare, education, and the social services they need. Meanwhile the government puts more focus on infrastructure projects that are often linked to corruption.

This year, P530.89 billion is allocated to the DPWH, the agency involved in giving “allocables” or pork barrel to politicians. As a result, much of the money that should go to building hospitals and classrooms is lost. In the end, only P38.00 out of every P100.00 is left for social services beacuse the government has to cover automatic and mandatory expenses such debt payments.

International Workers’ Day 2026: Fight for Living Wages and Workers’ Rights

Center for Women's Resources Statements and Media Releases 0 Comment

As we commemorate International Workers’ Day 2026, the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) honors all working people of the world, especially in the Philippines, whose hands and labor generate the world’s wealth, yet remain the most undervalued and exploited. The working people sustain our economies and communities, yet the current global capitalist system keeps their rights, welfare, and conditions precarious.

Workers in the Philippines face a worsening labor landscape marked by meager wages that barely meet basic needs, persistent job insecurity, intensified labor flexibilization, and worsening safety and working conditions. Labor flexibilization traps workers in unstable, low-paying and limited access to benefits and social protection. This deepens job insecurity and weakens the workers’ rights to unionize,  a critical means of  advancing workers’ rights. 

Restrictive and unjust labor policies further undermine basic workers’ rights. In 2025, the Philippines was listed among the 10 worst countries for workers due to its systematic violation of labor rights, which include red-tagging, threats and intimidation, violent dispersal of strikes, and extrajudicial killings.

Women workers are often disproportionately affected by these conditions, as they are often placed in low-paid, irregular, and unprotected jobs. Amid rising living costs and multiple burdens, women, particularly from marginalized sectors, bear the brunt of insufficient wages, pushing them further into economic vulnerability. Based on CWR interviews,  there is a persistent pattern of women resorting to extreme measures, such as skipping meals and reducing food intake, just to ensure their families survive. 

These conditions make the workers and peoples’ demand to raise the minimum wage across the regions to the family living wage of ₱1,200.00 and removal of the value-added tax (VAT) and excise tax on oil and other basic commodities. Alongside this is the demand to respect and uphold workers’ fundamental right to freedom of association, and ultimately to junk neoliberal policies and programs that have, for decades, been detrimental to the lives of the Filipino people. 

Now more than ever, CWR reaffirms its commitment to working towards a society where every worker is protected, empowered, and dignified. It holds firm that only through collective struggle can these goals be achieved. We call on everyone to stand with working people in the fight for better working and living conditions. Workers of the world, unite! #

BAKIT PATULOY NA NAKARARANAS NG PAGLABAG SA KARAPATANG PANTAO SA NEGROS?

Center for Women's Resources Advocacy, In the News, Resources 0 Comment

Abril 19, 2026 naganap ang pangmamasaker ng Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) sa Toboso, Negros Occidental na nagresulta sa pagkamatay ng 19 katao. Tinatayang 653 residente mula sa 138 na kabahayan ang pwersahang inilikas sa Barangay San Jose at Salamanca.

Sa gitna ng kahirapan, pangbabarat ng sahod ng mga manggagawa sa tubuhan, patuloy na nakararanas ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao ang mga taga-Negros. Nanatili ang Negros bilang isa sa mga pinakamilitarisadong rehiyon sa buong Pilipinas, kung saan ang presensya ng estado ay madalas na nararamdaman sa pamamagitan ng dahas sa halip na serbisyo. Sa kabuuang bilang na 135 biktima ng extrajudicial killings (EJK) sa bansa, 52 sa mga ito ay nagmula sa Negros—ang pinakamataas na bilang sa anumang rehiyon sa Pilipinas.

#DefendNegros

OIL PRICE HIKE

Center for Women's Resources Advocacy, Resources 0 Comment

Bakit nga ba patuloy ang pagtaas ng presyo ng langis at bakit isa ang Pilipinas sa pinakabulnerable at apektado sa global oil price shock?Nang dahil sa pagpapatupad ng mga neoliberal na patakaran tulad ng Oil Deregulation Law, inalis ng gobyerno ang kontrol nito sa mahahalagang industriya tulad ng langis. Ang resulta, ang mga pribadong kompanya ang malayang nakapagtatakda kung kailan at magkano ang itataas ng presyo nang hindi dumadaan sa regulasyon ng gobyerno.

Copy link
CopyCopied
Powered by Social Snap