PARENTS, watch out for your daughters. The police have sounded the alarm about rising cases of rape in the province.

The number of rape cases in Pangasinan is continuously increasing, averaging from 20 to 30 or more per month, and victims are now girls as young as four to seven years old.

This was bared by P/Senior Inspector Ria Tacderan, chief of the Women and Children Protection Desk of the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office (PPPO), who told the KBP Forum last Thursday that prevention of rape must already be treated with the same priority as the campaign against illegal drugs and gambling.

Tacderan revealed that over the 14-month period from July 2016, the PPPO already registered 441 rape cases.

Of this number, 96 are statutory rape (the victims are 12 years old and below), 65 incestuous rape (the victims are closely related to the suspects), 78 plain or adult rapes and 200 others where victims are more than 12 years old but below 18 years old.

So far, 269 were have been charged in all these cases but many of the suspects remain at-large, Tacderan added.

A closer analysis of the cases showed 320 rape cases happened inside residences, eight in far-flung places, six in the streets, five in commercial and business establishments, four in school, office and hospital, 56 in other places and 41 in unspecified places.

The highest number of rape cases was noted in November 2016 at 43, followed by 41 in February 2017, 39 in July 2016, 37 in January 2017, 36 in May 2017, 35 in December 2016, 27 each in June and July 2017; 26 in October 2016, 25 in September 2016, 19 from August 1-22, 2017; and 21 on August 2016.

Tacderan associated some incestuous rapes recorded by her office to poverty.

Incestuous rapes involving poor members of families: a father raping a daughter and grandfather-granddaughter, uncles-nieces, brother-sister, etc. happens because the family is too poor that they have common bedrooms and adults often see the young changing clothes and they sleep together in cramped rooms.

She also cited the cases of absentee parents being OFWs and whose young children are entrusted to husbands or relatives who are habitually drunk, gambling or into illegal drugs.

She cited a recent case in Dasol where the father had been complained of raping his daughters for almost a year now because his wife is an OFW.

She added that social media is one of the factors for the rise of rape cases because of easy access to pornographic sites and through the internet chat and texting where girls are also lured into meeting strangers that result in rape.

Tacderan called on friends and families to be conscious of these possible causes and to help send rapists to jail by persuading the victims to be bold enough to go to the police and file a complaint against her aggressor.

She said that the fight against rape is not the sole responsibility of the police and of the Department of Social Welfare and Development but of all.

Tacderan underscored PNP’s policy that it does not encourage amicable settlement between the two parties in rape cases because a rapist is emboldened to commit more if he is not sent to jail for his crime.

She clarified consensual sex may be claimed as a defense only “when the parties are two equals,” when both are adults.

Meanwhile, she said strict enforcement of the law on curfew hours for children will help prevent rape cases in the streets. (Leonardo Micua)

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments