A perspective on child abuse in the philippines

Abstract

In many Third World countries, violence against children continues to be a pressing problem. Such violence is often manifested in the form of abuse. The Philippines is similar to many other Asian countries in the way Western culture has greatly influenced its development and way of life. The Philippines' historical roots began with Spanish colonization four centuries ago. This colonization contributed to the development of a culture in which the church and the school usually emerge as the most influential institutions influencing the way children are brought up. Cases of physical and sexual abuse, as well as those considered "abuses of neglect," continue to be of major societal concern. Thus, violence in schools as well as other institutional sectors of society that play a role in a child's development is a problem of global proportions faced by most developed and developing countries. Despite the increasing global awareness of children's rights, there continues to be numerous documented cases of child abuse in many countries. In the Philippines, there are approximately 33 million children under the age of eighteen and authorities estimate that in 1999 alone, there were roughly 12,000 cases of child abuse (Yacat & Ong, 2002). The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) documented an increase in cases of child abuse and neglect from 1991 to 1997 (Yacat & Ong, 2002). Of these cases 44.5% were classified as sexual abuse, 21.67% as physical abuse, and 15.07% as neglect. The Philippine General Hospital Child Protection Unit (PGH-CPU) (1998) also reported a similar trend during the same year in which 67.7% of the cases they handled were documented as child abuse cases. Physical abuse constituted only 10% of these cases. While the statistics suggest that the majority of alleged perpetrators of abuse are familiar to the victims of child abuse, 66% of abusers are family members, the statistics fail to reflect the abuse occurring in the Philippine institutions of the school and the church. Abuse in these institutions is difficult to measure for many reasons. Because of the esteem schools and the church hold in Philippine society, cultural factors prevent child abuse authorities from recognizing and addressing abuse occurring in the schools and church. This paper will illustrate a perspective on the problem of child abuse in Philippine society and will analyze institutional influences that have contributed to this problem. The view of the child in Philippine society causes institutions and authorities to overlook and oftentimes encourage child abuse. Philippine authorities and institutions lack a clearly defined definition of abuse, especially in regards to verbal and psychological abuse. In conjunction with the Filipino view of the child, institutions remain focused on violence committed by children, as opposed to the violence committed by educators and clergy members. Much attention has been paid to child abuse occurring in families; however, with the considerable power and trust afforded to schools and the church, abuse often remains overlooked or under-examined. Research indicates that physical abuse cases may be underreported, and, therefore, the statistics fail to depict the actual incidences of abuse in communities. This underreporting may reflect a belief that only the most extreme forms of abuse necessitate intervention by the authorities. Thus, the home becomes overemphasized as the location where most abuse occurs. Numerous studies, articles, and books explore and validate the dominance of the family situation in the experience of abuse. A study conducted by the Psychosocial Trauma and Human Rights Program of the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP-CIDS) stated that while both parent and child groups generally situated abuse in the context of parental discipline, some important differences existed. First, parents held more normative views of abuse and described it as a deviation from appropriate discipline. These parents perceived abuse as a manifestation of the abuse of parental authority and the taking advantage of the child's relatively inferior position in the family. Children viewed abuse less in terms of power, but rather as a betrayal of trust (Yacat & Ong, 2002). Children believed disciplinary measures became abusive when the discipline became excessive, intentional, and unreasonable. The characteristics of child abuse, the misuse of trust and power, are not exclusive to the family and can occur in any adult-child relationship which is based on trust and power. © 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.