MAJOR PROJECT 2-PARRO.pdf

RAPE: THE UNENDING BATTLE TO
PRESERVE CHASTITY IN THE PHILIPPINES
Parro, Maria Fatima Linawan*
*College of Law, Philippine Law School, 1942 Donada Street corner
San Juan, Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Corresponding author: Maria Fatima L. Parro
Contact email: mflparro364@gmail.com
________________________________________________________________
I. Introduction
Among the more than 111 million Filipinos, 50.1% are male and 49.9% are
female1
. Nowadays, it’s typical for women to be raped without their consent. Many
women are afraid to speak up with the rape that they are experiencing from men.
Even with the prevalence of RA 9262 or the “VAWC law”, women and their children
are not able to protect themselves against the wrong things that men do to them.
More and more women are raped everyday along with the result of the
medical test from a doctor as evidences that rape really took place. The problem
is that many women in the Philippines are poor and have no education, that’s why,
even if they know that they are already raped, they will not fight for their rights as
a women. Well, in fact, many rape victims are forced to engage in prostitution
even if they don’t want to just to earn for a leaving. Also, if a man raped you, but
you married your rapist, he will be exempted from the crime. But, take note that
there is also such thing as “marital rape”. The laws of the Philippines are created
not for the purpose of displaying it to every person in the Philippines, but will also
enable women to fight for their chastity. This paper will try to dig deeper with
respect to how Filipinos see rape in the current times. Also, the Rape laws in the
Philippines will be assessed in terms of its effectivity in ensuring that every
Filipina will be protected from their rapists.
II. Why Men Rape Women?
The research study of McKibbin, et al. (2008)2
states that men rape women
based on an Evolutionary Psychology perspective because of the evolved
1 https://countrymeters.info/en/Philippines
2 McKibbin W., Shackelford, T.,Goetz, A., & Starratt, V. (2008). Why Do Men Rape? An Evolutionary Psychological
Perspective. Review of General Psychology: Vol. 12, No. 1, 86 –97.

psychological mechanisms in men which lead to their aggressiveness to rape
women in order to find a mate and procreate. They have also proposed five (5)
different kinds of rapists - 1. the disadvantaged men who resort to rape, 2.
“specialized” rapists who are sexually aroused by violent sex, 3. men who rape
opportunistically, 4. high-mating-effort men who are dominant and often
psychopathic, and 5. partner rapists motivated by assessments of increased risk
of sperm competition.
It was surprising that most men who are prone to rape women have low
socioeconomic status (Thornhill & Thornhill, 1983)3
. Also, men who are convicted
of rape have lower facial symmetry which shows that they have “poor genetic
quality” (McKibbin, et al. 2008, Shackelford & Larsen,1997) 4 , 5
. There’s an
emphasis on the statements of McKibbin, et al. (2008)6
that deprivation of mate
partners of men would lead to rape. If a man doesn’t have a psychological problem,
he will not rape a woman especially when she is unconscious.
Another concern is focused on the concept of money that’s why men rape
women. If a woman will not want to have forced sexual penetration from men, she
will not be endowed with money for a living. “Money is often times associated with
rape”. Needless to say, a husband would only give his wife money if and only if
he sees his wife being raped by another man. It doesn’t matter whether or not the
wife is conscious or unconscious. Based from the study conducted by Basile
(2002), 34% of married women suffered “marital rape” and are forced to be raped
in exchange for money. If a woman is educated and if she is not a prostitute, do
not force her to have sex with you without her consent in exchange for money
because there will be a devaluation of dignity on the part of the woman.
Unfortunately, prostitutes nowadays have higher income in the Philippines as
compared to married women who are raped. Going back to the study of Basile
(2002)7
, 24% of the respondents declared that they had an unwanted sex because
of money because if not, no matter how they try hard to work, they will not be paid
because sex is required in order to have money in order to live. Also, 9% of the
women respondents were forced to have unwanted sex because they were bullied.
3 Thornhill, R., & Thornhill, N. W. (1983). Human rape: An evolutionary analysis. Ethology & Sociobiology, 4(3), 137–
173.
5 Shackelford, T. K., & Larsen, R. J. (1997). Facial asymmetry as indicator of psychological, emotional and physiological
distress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 456 – 466.
7 Basile, K.C. (2002). Prevalence of Wife Rape and Other Intimate Partner Sexual Coercion in a Nationally
Representative Sample of Women. Violence and Victims, Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 511-524.

Based from the study of Finkelhor and Yllo (1985)8
, there are four (4)
different kinds of sexual coercion - social coercion, interpersonal coercion,
threatened physical coercion and the last kind is the physical coercion that qualify
as rape. Social coercion is related to social as well as cultural expectations due
to legal matters, marriage, as well as religious beliefs. In interpersonal coercion,
men tend to withhold money from women if they don’t want to have sex which
makes women sick. This is unfairly true for both educated and uneducated women
that if they didn’t have sex, they will not have any money. The interpersonal
coercion is making women as sex slaves, worse than a prostitute. This is the
coercion technique which is exemplified by most of uneducated men that there’s
no money without sex. Then you have physical coercion, using threats against
the victim or her family so that the woman would be forced to surrender herself to
the man. The last kind is the physical coercion that qualify as rape. This is subject
to the provision of Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines which
is considered as the crime against a person.
Is the fear of having prostate cancer the reason why men rape women? No.
Prostate cancer is linked to sexually transmitted disease based from the study of
Taylor, et al., 9
(2005) due to gonorrhea, syphilis, and even human papilloma virus.
Also, trichomoniasis may be linked to prostate cancer (Marous et al., 201710
,
Russell, 201411
). This is the reason why, being sexually active will lead to the
prevalence of cervical cancer in man due to the sexually transmitted diseases.
Men tend to rape women not only because they are aggressive or they are
a psychopath or for any other reasons, but also because of personal gratification,
pleasure, lust, and money. But, it’s a real issue on the effects of rape on women.
IV. Rape and Trauma on Women
Rape is very traumatic for women which leads to the “disruption of a
woman’s parental care, causing a woman’s partner to abandon her, and causing
a woman serious physical injury as well as death (McKibbin, et al., 2008, Thornhill
8 Finkelhor, D., & Yllo, K. (1985). Licence to rape: Sexual abuse of wives. New York: The Free Press
9 Taylor, M., Mainous III, A., & Wells, B. (2005). Prostate cancer and sexually transmitted diseases: a meta-analysis. Fam
Med Vol. 37, No. 7, pp. 506-512.
10 Marous, M., Huang W.Y., Rabkin, S., Hayes, R., Alderete, J., Rosner, B., Grubb III, R. , Winter A. & Sutcliffe, S.
(2017). Trichomonas vaginalis infection and risk of prostate cancer: associations by disease aggressiveness and
race/ethnicity in the PLCO Trial. Cancer Causes Control 28, pp. 889–898
11 https://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20140523/prostate-cancer-std

& Palmer, 2000, Shackelford, 2002)12,13,14
. The study of Foa (1997)15
indicates
that 95% of women who were proven to be raped suffered a Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD) within a week or two after being raped.
Also, out of the 92 rape victims on the study of Burgess and Holmstrom
(2015)16
, there’s the prevalence of a rape trauma syndrome among these women.
Rape trauma 17
is defined as “the stress response pattern of a rape victim
following forced, non- consenting sexual activity”. Rape trauma syndrome could
be divided into two (2) categories- the disruptive phase and the long term process
of reorganization. The disruptive phase according to Burges and Holmstorm
(1974)18
manifests the stress response symptoms of rape victims which could last
from days to weeks. Then, long term process of reorganization involves recovery
from the trauma of being raped which could last from months to years. The Rape
trauma syndrome is considered to be under DSM-III of PTSD (Burgess, 1983)19
.
Rape involves unprotected sex. This unprotected sex would eventually lead
to the acquisition of sexually transmitted diseases in rape victims. Based from the
study of Wingood and Diclemente20
(2009), 14% of women who have been raped
were the persons who reported that they were HIV-positive since men who raped
them were not using any condoms which would most probably protect them from
acquiring the disease. Also, after screening 90 female respondents after they
were raped, Lacey 21
(1990) found out that 13 women have STD and 3 women
have mixed infections. STD that were monitored were Neisseria gonorrhoeae,
Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis, Pediculosis pubis, and genital
warts. Also, the study of Estreich, et al. 22
(1990) that human papilloma virus (HPV)
associated with ano-genital neoplasia is present among rape victims. Take note
that HPV can cause chronic liver disease, carcinoma, and/or cervical cancer. In
connection to this, it was declared by Estreich, et al. (1990) that the “herpes
simplex virus (HSV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), human
13 Thornhill, R., & Palmer, C. P. (2000). A natural history of rape. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
14 Shackelford, T. K. (2002). Are young women the special targets of rape-murder? Aggressive Behavior, 28, 224 –232.
15 Foa, E. ,PHD (1997). Trauma and Women: Course, Predictors, and Treatment. J.Clin. Psych: 58, pp. 25-28.
16 Burgess & Holmstrom (2015). Rape Trauma Syndrome. The American Journal of Psych, Vol. 131, Issue 9, pp. 981-986.
17 Burgess, A. W. (1983). Rape trauma syndrome. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 1(3), 97–113.
18 Burgess, A. W., & Holmstrom, L. L. (1974). Rape trauma syndrome. American Journal of Psych,131, pp.981-986.
19 Burgess, A. W. (1983). Rape trauma syndrome. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 1(3), 97–113.
20 Wingood, G. & Diclemente, R. (2009). Rape among African American Women: Sexual, Psychological, and Social
Correlates Predisposing Survivors to Risk of STD/HIV. Journal of Women's HealthVol. 7, No. 1, pp. 77-84.
21 Lacey, H.B. (1990). Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Rape: The Experience of a Sexual Assault Centre.
International Journal of STD & AIDS, Vol. 1, Issue 6.
22 Estreich, S., Forster, G.E., & Robinson, A. (1990). Sexually transmitted diseases in rape victims. Genitourin Med 66,
pp. 433-438

immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as well as molluscum contagiosum” can be
acquired by rape victims.
Through this particular matter, rape causes not only trauma to women, but
also, they have a higher chance of acquiring certain sexually transmitted diseases
beyond their will.
II. Rape Statistics in the Philippines
A man-centered world where rape is tolerated is horrible. It is addressing
only the desires of men without bearing in mind that women are prone to the
acquisition of certain sexually transmitted disease or even cervical cancer. In the
Philippines, as of March, 2021, there were reported 16 rape cases in Police
Regional Office 9 only23
. Based from the tabular report of PNP, there were
reported 1,738 rape cases from December 24, 2019- March 16, 2020 and 885
rape cases from March 17, 2020- June 8, 202024
. Well, the rape victims cannot
speak about the rape incident that they have experienced due to the prevalence
of the community quarantine. The data presented is not enough and further
research on the number of rape victims in the Philippines should be done.
IV. Rape Law in the Philippines Towards the Attainment of Chastity
Unknowingly, the Philippines nowadays is very lenient in terms of how rape
is addressed which imposes only the penalty of reclusion perpetua on rapists.
Unlike during the time of Leo Echegaray wherein rape is not tolerated. There’s a
call for empowerment on weak women who cannot even speak with respect to
how they are raped by men. But, how will you know if you are raped or not? “The
crime of rape shall hereafter be classified as a Crime Against Persons, a heinous
crime under.....Act No. 3815, as amended, otherwise known as the Revised Penal
Code....” (Republic Act 835325
, section 2). Also, based from the Act No. 381526
or
Otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, Article 335, it
emphasizes rape as follows:
“Article 335. When and how rape is committed. - Rape is committed by
having carnal knowledge of a woman under any of the following
circumstances:
23 https://pro9.pnp.gov.ph/index.php/public-relations/crime-statistics/4632-crime-statistics-march-2021
24 https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/6/10/Focus-crimes-dipped-sharply-community-quarantine-PNP-.html
25 https://pcw.gov.ph/republic-act-8353-the-anti-rape-law-of-1997/
26 https://lawphil.net/statutes/acts/act_3815_1930.html

1. By using force or intimidation;
2. When the woman is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious;
and
3. When the woman is under twelve years of age, even though
neither of the circumstances mentioned in the two next preceding
paragraphs shall be present.
The crime of rape shall be punished by reclusion perpetua.
Whenever the crime of rape is committed with the use of a deadly
weapon or by two or more persons, the penalty shall be reclusion
perpetua to death.
When by reason or on the occasion of the rape, the victim has become
insane, the penalty shall be death.
When rape is attempted or frustrated and a homicide is committed by
reason or on the occasion thereof, the penalty shall be likewise death.
When by reason or on the occasion of the rape, a homicide is committed,
the penalty shall be death. (As amended by R.A. 2632, approved June
18, 1960, and R.A. 4111, approved June 20, 1964).”
This is the reason why, when you are sleeping and different kinds of me
penetrated their private parts on you without your consent, that’s rape. If men
knows within then that you are just allowing yourself to be raped and you are not
fighting to protect your chastity, they will definitely take advantage of you up to the
point that they will just use you just to meet their personal desires of freely raping
you without your consent. There are a lot of men who tend to be disrespectful with
women. They will treat their women victim as sex slaves. The questions would be
– are women created to be raped? Are women entitled to be chained forever from
those persons who raped them? Is being raped required just to earn for a living?
Why do men rape?
On the case of People vs. Gahi (G.R. No. 202976, February 19, 2014)27
,
Mervin Gahi the accused, pointed a knife on a 16-year old girl so that he could
rape her and was charged with two (2) counts of rape. It was emphasized on the
case that, “It is likewise jurisprudentially settled that when a woman says she has
27 https://www.chanrobles.com/cralaw/2014februarydecisions.php?id=105

been raped, she says in effect all that is necessary to show that she has been
raped and her testimony alone is sufficient if it satisfies the exacting standard of
credibility needed to convict the accused.”
The elements of rape are stated on the case of People vs. Tubillo (G.R. No.
220718, June 21, 2017)28
which states that – the offender had carnal knowledge
of the victim; and such act was accomplished through force or intimidation; or
when the victim is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious; or when the
victim is under twelve years of age. Take note that on the case of People v. Bejic
(G.R. NO. 174060, June 25, 2007)29
pregnancy is not considered as an essential
element under rape. Also, on the case of People vs. Gapasan (G.R. No. 110812,
March 29, 1995)30
states that “non-presentation of a medical certificate or the
physician who made the physical examination of the victim can not, in the least,
affect the credibility of victim's testimony” and based from teh statement of the
Supreme Court, “A medical certificate is not necessary to prove the commission
of rape. It merely corroborates the testimony of the victim. It is a settled rule in
evidence that presumption from suppression does not apply to corroborative
evidence. Hence, the non-presentation of the medical certificate, which is merely
corroborative, does not give rise to the presumption that if presented, it would be
adverse to the prosecution.”
The statements above allows a woman to be empowered to fight for her
chastity despite the fact that rape is already considered as a crime against
persons. Maybe, men have the guts to rape women due to the fact that R.A.
934631
or “The Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines”
was approved on June 24, 2006. Because of that, the court may rule on the
imposition of reclusion perpetua instead for rapists.
It’s a good thing that there is a rape law in the Philippines. Rape is also part
of “sexual violence” under section 3 ((a)-B-a,b,c) of R.A. 9262 or the "Anti-
Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004"32
which states that:
B. "Sexual violence" refers to an act which is sexual in nature,
committed against a woman or her child. It includes, but is not
limited to:
28 https://www.chanrobles.com/cralaw/2017junedecisions.php?id=386
29 https://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri2007/jun2007/gr_174060_2007.html
30 https://www.chanrobles.com/cralaw/1995marchdecisions.php?id=176
31 https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2006/ra_9346_2006.html
32 https://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2004/ra_9262_2004.html

a) rape, sexual harassment, acts of lasciviousness, treating a
woman or her child as a sex object, making demeaning and
sexually suggestive remarks, physically attacking the sexual
parts of the victim's body, forcing her/him to watch obscene
publications and indecent shows or forcing the woman or her
child to do indecent acts and/or make films thereof, forcing the
wife and mistress/lover to live in the conjugal home or sleep
together in the same room with the abuser;
b) acts causing or attempting to cause the victim to engage in any
sexual activity by force, threat of force, physical or other harm or
threat of physical or other harm or coercion;
c) Prostituting the woman or child.
There are certain penalties if “sexual violence” like rape shall be committed
on women. This is the reason why, women should not be afraid to speak that they
were raped. Women should fight for their rights as a person. Also, men should
find a way in order to respect and protect women and not to hurt them since
women are also part of the human race. Women should not be forced, instead,
they should be loved. Because if women knows that they are loved, they would
not resist. But, if you hurt, abuse, and treat a woman as your sex slave, she will
find a way in order to break free from the painful and traumatic situation that she
is currently experiencing. Now as a challenge, the rape law in the Philippines
should not just be a display that there is such kind of law in the said country.
Instead, it should protect women from rapists.
V. Summary
Based from the factual words that are written on this paper, it was noted that
men raped women because of their aggressive character in search for a mate. It
was also noted that men who belong to a low socioeconomic status and those
who have poor genetic quality have a higher risk of raping women. Men rape
women for pleasure and money and because of this, women are prone to the
acquisition of certain sexually transmitted diseases as well as rape trauma
syndrome.
There are laws in the Philippines which protects women from being raped
as well as the imposition of penalties for those heinous crimes. These laws are
the Act 3815, R.A. 8353, and R.A. 9262. Through the provisions of the

aforementioned laws, the mala in se crime of rape shall be properly addressed
and penalized.
VI. Conclusions
As a conclusion, the aforementioned factual data have lead to the
realization that women should be cherished and treasured. Women should not be
treated as rape subjects because it brings the negative impact of trauma to them.
Mothers should raise and nurture their male children so that when they grow up,
they will serve as protector of women and not otherwise. Men on the other hand,
should be educated because if a man is educated, they would know their limits as
a person and they will definitely prevent themselves from forcefully raping women.
Men and women should understand each other’s needs not because of lust but
because of love because a man will certainly not rape a woman whom they love
and cherish the most.
VII. Recommendations
With respect to the above-mentioned summary and conclusions, the
following recommendations are made:
1. Conduct a quantitative research with respect to the incidences of rape in
the Philippines during the COVID-19 Pandemic and how it was addressed
by the proper authority. Also, the future researchers may opt to look on
data with respect to the acquisition of STDs of the rape victims.
2. Conduct a qualitative research in terms of the trauma and emotional
stress that a rape victim had experienced before, during, and after the
rape incident.
3. Conduct a reasearch study in order to find a way so that men could be
able to control their aggresive behavior and prevent them from their desire
of raping innocent women.
4. Create a group that will protect women who are rape victims and assist
them with their recovery from the traumatic situation. This group also have
the task to promote women empowerment that allows women who were
victims of rape not to be afraid to voice out that they were raped.

5. Modify the current “Anti-Rape Law” in the Philippines in order to pave
way for protection, healing, and recovery of rape victims.
VIII. References
Basile, K.C. (2002). Prevalence of Wife Rape and Other Intimate Partner Sexual
Coercion in a Nationally Representative Sample of Women. Violence and
Victims, Vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 511-524.
Burgess, A. W. (1983). Rape trauma syndrome. Behavioral Sciences & the Law,
1(3), 97–113.
Burgess, A. W., & Holmstrom, L. L. (1974). Rape trauma syndrome. American
Journal of Psych,131, pp.981-986.
Countrymeters.info (2021). Philippines population. Retrieved April 05, 2021,
from https://countrymeters.info/en/Philippines
Estreich, S., Forster, G.E., & Robinson, A. (1990). Sexually transmitted diseases
in rape victims. Genitourin Med 66, pp. 433-438
Finkelhor, D., & Yllo, K. (1985). Licence to rape: Sexual abuse of wives. New
York: The Free Press
Foa, E. ,PHD (1997). Trauma and Women: Course, Predictors, and Treatment.
J.Clin. Psych: 58, pp. 25-28.
Lacey, H.B. (1990). Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Rape: The Experience
of a Sexual Assault Centre. International Journal of STD & AIDS, Vol. 1,
Issue 6.
Marous, M., Huang W.Y., Rabkin, S., Hayes, R., Alderete, J., Rosner, B., Grubb
III, R. , Winter A. & Sutcliffe, S. (2017). Trichomonas vaginalis infection
and risk of prostate cancer: associations by disease aggressiveness and
race/ethnicity in the PLCO Trial. Cancer Causes Control 28, pp. 889–898

McKibbin W., Shackelford, T.,Goetz, A., & Starratt, V. (2008). Why Do Men
Rape? An Evolutionary Psychological Perspective. Review of General
Psychology: Vol. 12, No. 1, 86 –97.
Philippines (1930). ACT No. 3815: An Act Revising the Penal Code and Other
Penal Laws. Retrieved April 05, 2021, from
https://lawphil.net/statutes/acts/act_3815_1930.html
Philippines (1997). Republic Act 8353: The Anti-Rape Law. Retrieved April 05,
2021, from https://pcw.gov.ph/republic-act-8353-the-anti-rape-law-of-1997/
Russel, P. (2014). Prostate Cancer 'Could Be Transmitted Sexually'. Retrieved
April 05, 2021, from https://www.webmd.com/prostate-
cancer/news/20140523/prostate-cancer- std
Shackelford, T. K. (2002). Are young women the special targets of rape-murder?
Aggressive Behavior, 28, 224 –232.
Taylor, M., MD, Mainous III, A., PhD, Wells, B. MD, MS (2005). Prostate Cancer
and Sexually Transmitted Diseases: A Meta-analysis. Clinical Research
and Methods, Vol. 37, No. 7, pp. 506-512.
Thornhill, R., & Palmer, C. P. (2000). A natural history of rape. Cambridge, MA:
The MIT Press.
Thornhill, R., & Thornhill, N. W. (1983). Human rape: An evolutionary analysis.
Ethology & Sociobiology, 4(3), 137–173.
Wingood, G. & Diclemente, R. (2009). Rape among African American Women:
Sexual, Psychological, and Social Correlates Predisposing Survivors to
Risk of STD/HIV. Journal of Women's HealthVol. 7, No. 1, pp. 77-84.

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