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.
