This document summarizes a study that examined the relationship between reported cases of violence against women and gender equality in the Philippines from 2006 to 2017. The study found that both reported violence and gender equality, as measured by the Gender Gap Index, have been increasing over time based on quadratic and linear trend models, respectively. Symbolic regression analysis also found a high degree of positive association between increased gender equality and reported violence. The study concludes that continued efforts are needed to further promote gender equality and prevent violence against women in the Philippines.

1. Journal of Educational and Human Resource Development 6:68-81(2018)
Southern Leyte State University, Sogod, Southern Leyte, Philippines
Violence against Women and Gender Equality in the
Philippines: Are they Related?
Jabin J. Deguma*
Emerson D. Peteros
Melona S. Case
Vicente J. Igot
Cebu Technological University
Cebu City, Philippines
Abstract
The Philippine Commission on Women furthered campaign in promoting gender equality
in the Philippines which has been a socio-cultural issue over the past years. The strict
implementation of the law may have caused Filipino women to speak up and report abuses
against them. The study determined the model for the trends, a sample forecast for the next 10
years, and relatedness of the reported crime of violence against women and the Gender Gap
Index (GGI) in the Philippines. It retrieved data from the reports of the Philippines Statistics
Authority and of the World Economic Forum from 2006 to 2017 through data mining. This
study employed descriptive methods via time trend analyses using Minitab R and Symbolic
Regression using Eureqa Pro R . Using time trend analysis, the reported cases of violence
against women fits the Quadratic Trend Model (MAD=1968) while the quality of gender
equality in the Philippines fits the Linear Trend Model (MAD=0.00306). Both reports are
forecasted to be increasing for the next 10 years. The symbolic regression analysis provided
a forecasted relatedness of the reported cases of violence against women (R=0.9958,
R2=0.9911, MAE=0.00067) to GGI. The reported cases of violence against women have
a 73% positive association of increasing GGI. Such disclosure supports the necessity of
pragmatically real social action from governmental and non-governmental organizations which
prevent the occurrence of the crime of violence against women in the future and increase
gender equality to promote social welfare as part of the sustainable development goals.
Keywords: Gender and development; Social welfare; Sustainable development goals; Symbolic
regression; Time trend analysis
Introduction
The United Nations (UN) (2015) emphasized
that increasing gender equality awareness
is a crucial part of the overall picture of
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
These Global Goals encourage the world
to fight and to end poverty, protect the
planet, ensure that all people enjoy peace
and prosperity, and to promote gender equality
(United Nations Development Programme
[UNDP], 2018). Gender equality, as defined
by the UN Office of the Special Advisor to
the Secretary-General on Gender Issues and
the Advancement of Women, means men
and women having equal rights, opportunities,
responsibilities, and access to resources as
well as the enjoyment of them while taking into
account the assurance that men and women’s
perceptions, interests, needs, and priorities
are given equal weight (www.africa.undp.org).
As evidence of living out the SDGs on
gender equality, the World Economic Forum
(WEF) first published the Global Gender Gap
*Correspondence: jabindeguma@ctu.edu.ph ISSN 2545-9732

2. Deguma et al. JEHRD Vol.6, 2018
Index (GGI) Report in 2006. The GGI was
presented by WEF to determine the magnitude
of gender-based disparities among countries
worldwide (WEF, 2017). WEF provides
country rankings which are designed to create
global awareness on gender equality and its
progress over time.
In the Philippine setting, issues on gender
equality and violence against women are
undeniable. The National Statistics Office
found out that one out of five women
suffered from physical violence with 14.4
percent of married women being physically
abused or suffered domestic violence from
husbands (Philippine Commission on Women
[PCW], 2009a). One-third of separated or
widowed women also experienced violence
which resulted in separation or annulment
(PCW, 2009a). This long- established unequal
relationship of men and women is very much
concretized by the occurrence of violence
against women (VAW), as purported by the
Philippine Commission on Women (PCW,
2009b) and World Health Organization (WHO)
(2010). The Philippines Statistics Authority
(PSA) compiled these reported cases by the
PNP on violence against women.
Despite these sad realities, the Philippine
Government is committed to the challenge
of attaining the SDGs to promote gender
equality. As reported by the Senate of the
Philippines on Crime Statistics (2013), having
a safe and secure community is vital and is
an important factor in adopting ventures and
economic growth. The Philippine government,
as a response to promote the SDG on gender
equality, issued a policy statement informing
all government agencies to conduct data
monitoring on the performance of the country
with respect to the SDGs and responsibilities
of statistics agencies on reported cases of
violence against women in the Philippines
(Philippine Statistics Authority, n.d.). As a
result, Philippines is ranked as 10th out of 144
participating countries worldwide in the recent
2017 WEF report on Gender Gap Index (GGI).
This paper has three main objectives. First,
it determined the model for the trends of the
reported crime of violence against women
and GGI in the Philippines through a time
series analysis. Second, it provided a sample
forecast of the reported crime of violence
against women and GGI in the Philippines in
the next 10 years. Thirdly, it determined the
relatedness of the reported crime of violence
against women and GGI in the Philippines by
creating a model through symbolic regression
(SR) analysis.
Theoretical Framework
The SDG on gender equality prompted
all members of UN to end all forms of
discrimination against women which is a
necessary foundation, not only for upholding
human rights but for a peaceful, prosperous
and sustainable world (UNDP, 2018). As
consistently cited by Hopkins & Patel (2006),
Permanyer (2008), O’Connell (2011), Carlson
and Randell (2013), Winchester and Browning
(2015), Loots and Walker (2015), Ponte and
Enriquez (2016), Lombardo, Meier and
Verloo (2016), Rosche (2016), Onditi and
Odera (2016), and Cochrane and Rao
(2018), violence against women became
an underpinning manifestation of the lack
of gender equality. Meanwhile, the lack of
gender equality is seen as an underlying
determinant of violence against women
which includes hierarchical structure based
on features such as gender, race or class
(Ridgeway, 2014; Nayak et al., 2003; Fanslow
et al., 2010), disproportionate experience
of women as victims of violence (WHO,
2005; Fulu et al., 2013), and women being
educationally disadvantaged (Jewkes, 2002).
Further, society’s misinformed views on
gender and sexuality may have contributed
to these phenomena. As studied by Wall
(2014), the connection between gender
equality and violence against women requires
a multi-dimensional perspective that goes
beyond economics like the relative social
status of different groups, social norms, and
attitude. Wall added that the lack of research
and data on gender equality and violence
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3. Deguma et al. JEHRD Vol.6, 2018
Figure 1. Conceptual framework of the study
against women, despite obvious logic in
the connection, added to the complexity
(Wall, 2014). It is necessary to look at the
correlation of these variables for achieving
sustainable development and to uplift human
rights through enhancing social welfare of
the country since it was found out from
previous related studies that social welfare is
affected most by the quality of gender equality
(Bergqvist, 2016; Mandel & Semyonov, 2006;
Korpi, 2000; Korpi, Ferarini & Englund, 2013;
Sipil¨a, Anttonen & Baldock, 2003).
Methodology
This study retrieved essential data used as
variables through data mining, a process
of using datasets to ascertain patterns and
institute associations through data analysis
(Rouse, 2008; Witten, Eibe & Holmes 2011).
Witten, Eibe and Holmes (2011) added that
the benefit of data mining allows uncovering
hidden patterns and relationship which aids to
make predictions. Davis and Patterson (2012)
also assured data to be ethically neutral.
Republic Act 10173 (Data Privacy Act of
2012), provides that information processed for
journalistic, artistic, and literary or research
purposes are valid grounds for the proper
consumption and usage of available data
(National Privacy Commission , n.d.).
In this study, the data are reports from
reputable agencies and are readily available
for public consumption. The data include the
reported cases of violence against women
in the Philippines, as presented in Table 1
of the annual Philippines Statistics Authority
(PSA, 2017). The Philippines Statistics
Authority for the past 12 consecutive years,
from 2006 to 2017, produces an annual
report which summarizes various statistics
generated by PSA and other government
and private agencies. This report includes
statistics on Crime and Delinquency based
on the reports given by Philippine National
Police (PNP) which reported cases of violence
against women, are recorded (PSA, 2017).
While Table 2 depicts the GGI of the
Philippines as provided by the (WEF in 2017),
WEF introduced the GGI in 2006 which
served as a basis for apprehending the extent
of gender-based inequalities and tracing
their progress over time WEF, 2017. The
Philippines is among the 144 countries which
participated in the survey. Hausmann, Tyson
and Zahidi (2010) reported that countries’
ranking of Gender Gap Index is based on
the calculated gender gap between women
and men in four key areas: health and
survival; educational attainment; economic
participation; and political empowerment.
Health and survival, as purported by
Hausmann, Tyson and Zahidi (2010) and
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4. Deguma et al. JEHRD Vol.6, 2018
Table 1. Reported cases of violence against
women from 2006 to 2017 based on the
annual Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)
report
Year Reported Cases of
Violence Against Women
2006 8,011
2007 7,383
2008 6,505
2009 5,889
2010 6,679
2011 7,456
2012 10,482
2013 15,789
2014 13,974
2015 17,526
2016 25,430
2017 40,220
Choe, Cho and Kim (2016) is an outcome on
the female-to-male ratio at birth and healthy
life expectancy of females relative to males
as WHO (2007; 2009) reported on healthy
life expectancy and in the global burden of
disease obtained. Hence, the female mortality
rate determined the index score. In this case,
countries which reported to have high male
mortality rates could achieve better scores
in health and survival sub-index (Stanistreet,
Bambra, & Scott-Samuel, 2005).
Meanwhile, the sub-index on educational
attainment measures outcomes on access
to higher level education and literacy rate of
female to male as well as the female-to-male
ratios in school enrolment across all levels of
education including primary, secondary and
tertiary levels (Hausmann, Tyson & Zahidi,
2010; Choe, Cho & Kim, 2016). The economic
participation sub-index looked at salaries,
participation levels and access to high-skilled
employment opportunities for female and
male. Hence, it calculated female-to-male
ratios of labor force participation, wages,
earned income, the number of workers
with managerial status, and the number of
professional workers (Hausmann, Tyson
& Zahidi, 2010; Choe, Cho & Kim, 2016).
Table 2. Gender Gap Index of Philippines from
2006 to 2017 based on the World Economic
Forum report
Year Philippine Gender Gap
Index
2006 0.7516
2007 0.7629
2008 0.7568
2009 0.7579
2010 0.7654
2011 0.7685
2012 0.7757
2013 0.7832
2014 0.7814
2015 0.79
2016 0.786
2017 0.79
The sub-index on political empowerment
looked at outcomes on representation
in decision-making structures based on
the number of women relative to men in
parliament, at the ministerial level, and as
heads of government (Hausmann, Tyson &
Zahidi, 2010; Choe, Cho & Kim, 2016). The
Philippines has been part of Gender Gap
Reports of WEF from 2006 to 2017.
A four-step process is followed to construct
these indices (Hausmann, Tyson & Zahidi,
2010). The indicators of interest are
interpreted first from accessible data into
female/male ratios. The equality benchmark
is marked as 1 when data obtained are equal
for women and men except for health and
survival sub-index while equality benchmark
for sex ratio and healthy life expectancy are
0.944 and 1.06 respectively. Calculating the
weighted averages for the truncated ratios
within each sub-index to create the sub-index
values served as the third step. Moreover,
the unweighted average of each sub-index is
taken to calculate the overall GGI. The final
values are bounded by 0 (inequality) and 1
(equality). These areas are very relevant in
determining the quality of gender equality
around the globe.
This study employed descriptive methods
via time trend analyses using Minitab R
and
71

5. Deguma et al. JEHRD Vol.6, 2018
Figure 2. Twelve-year time trend analysis of reported cases of violence against women
symbolic regression using Eureqa Pro R
in
determining the trend and relatedness of the
reported cases of violence against women and
GGI in the Philippines.
Results and Discussion
Figure 2 gives a graphical idea of the trend
of reported cases of violence against women
in the Philippines from 2006 to 2017. It
showed an increasing trend in the number
of reported cases of violence against women
in the Philippines for the past 12 years.
From a report of 8,011 cases of violence
against women in 2006, it increased to 40,220
cases in 2017. The result provided a
Quadratic Trend Model with a Mean Absolute
Percentage Error (MAPE) of 13, a Mean
Absolute Deviation (MAD) of 1968, and a
Mean Standard Deviation (MSD) of 6420867.
The increasing trend of reported cases were
recorded by the PNP. Hence, the increase of
the reported cases does not necessarily mean
or is conclusive that there is an increase in
the occurrence of the crime against women.
The possibility of unreported cases of violence
against women in the Philippines could not be
bargained.
Figure 3 shows an increasing trend of
gender equality in the Philippines. The GGI
of Philippines for the past twelve years has
improved from 0.7516 in 2006 to 0.79 in 2017.
The Linear Trend Model provided with a MAPE
of 0.396251, a MAD of 0.00306, and an
MSD of 0.000013. The model supported the
result of the recent 2017 WEF report in which
the Philippines is ranked as 10th out of 144
participating countries worldwide. For the past
twelve years since the first Global Gender Gap
Report in 2006 by the WEF, the country has
scored high in the area of gender equality.
Moreover, the reported cases of violence
against women are forecasted to be increasing
in the next 10 years using the Quadratic Trend
Model, as seen in Table 3. As predicted,
the forecasted number of reported cases will
be 43,121 in 2018. It will also increase up
to 156,993 in 2027 if there is continued use
of same trend in projecting the number of
reported cases of violence against women
in the Philippines. On the other hand, the
forecasting of GGI of the Philippines in the
next 10 years is also improving (Table 3).
Using the Linear Trend Model, we predict
that in 2027, the Philippines will have an
index rating of 0.8289 provided that the
current undertakings to improve gender
equality in the Philippines are maintained.
Such disclosure supports the necessity of
pragmatically relevant social actions from
a governmental and non-governmental
organization which prevent the occurrence
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6. Deguma et al. JEHRD Vol.6, 2018
Figure 3. Twelve-year time trend analysis of the Gender Gap Index of the Philippines
of the crime of violence against women in
the future and increase gender equality as
part of sustainable development goals. As
consistently cited, strengthening gender
equality policies in every country in effect
strengthens women’s desire to be empowered
(Villagomes, 2004; Stratigaki, 2005; Walby,
2005; Pease, 2008; Lombardo, Meier &
Verloo, 2016). Gender equality, as an
ambition set as part of UN Agenda 2030
and SDG (Rosche, 2016; Ponte & Enriquez,
2016; Palmer, 2015; Razavi, 2016; Deacon,
2016; Bradshaw, Chant & Linneker, 2017)
is significantly and positively affected when
women are empowered.
The study proceeded with investigating the
relatedness of the reported cases of violence
against women and GGI of the Philippines
through symbolic regression (SR) analyses
using Eureqa Pro R
. Symbolic regression
is a method that predicts relationship and
connects variables while providing a model
which is not assumed beforehand. According
to Barmpalexis et al. (2011), SR operates
through genetic programming (GP). GP
generates populations of equations using the
Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest
(Koza, 1994; Koza et al., 2003; Barmpalexis
et al., 2011). GP searches for the fittest
equation by setting a target expression and
after a series of runs in every cycle which is
Table 3. Forecasted number of reported cases
of violence against women and Gender Gap
Index of the Philippines in the next 10 years
Year Predicted
Number of
Reported Cases
of Violence
against Women
in the
Philippines
Predicted
Gender Gap
Index of the
Philippines
2018 43,121 0.7961
2019 52,017 0.7997
2020 61,853 0.8034
2021 72,627 0.807
2022 84,341 0.8107
2023 96,993 0.8143
2024 110,585 0.8179
2025 125,115 0.8216
2026 140,585 0.8252
2027 156,993 0.8289
called generation. Through GP, SR structured
patterns from a dataset of variables to find
the “fittest” combination to model prediction
(Claveria, Monte & Torra, 2016).
In the case of forecasting the association
between the reported cases of violence
against women and gender gap index of
the Philippines, the target expression used
to predict is as follows: y=f(x), whereas
Philippine Gender Gap Index (y) is affected
by the function of the reported cases of
violence against women in the Philippines (x)
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7. Deguma et al. JEHRD Vol.6, 2018
Table 4. Variables used for symbolic
regression analysis
Year Reported
Cases of
Violence
Against
Women (x)
Philippine
Gender Gap
Index (y)
2006 8,011 0.7516
2007 7,383 0.7629
2008 6,505 0.7568
2009 5,889 0.7579
2010 6,679 0.7654
2011 7,456 0.7685
2012 10,482 0.7757
2013 15,789 0.7832
2014 13,974 0.7814
2015 17,526 0.79
2016 25,430 0.786
2017 40,220 0.79
as presented in Table 4. The result of symbolic
regression analysis for the target expression
provides a fit formula (Eqtn. 1).
The result provided a quadratic trend
manifested by the presence of x2. The
presence of sine and cosine functions in
the equation indicated correction factors and
seasonal variations which contributed to the
accuracy of the formula used to predict the
correlation of the reported cases of violence
against women and GGI of the Philippines.
Moreover, the model has a strong positive
correlation (R) of 0.9958. It has a goodness
of fit (R2) of 0.9911 and has a mean absolute
error (MAE) of 0.00067. Corollary to this
forecasting, the reported cases of violence
against women for the past 12 years had a
positive association of 73 percent likelihood
of increasing GGI as reflected in the variable
sensitivity report. GGI will have 73 percent
probability of continued increase provided that
the same trend will occur on the reported
cases of VAW for the forthcoming years. Thus,
an increase of the reported cases of violence
against women may indicate an increase in the
Gender Gap Index.
As claimed by Levinson (1989), the level of
women’s participation in society was a factor
that affected women empowerment. The
surge of violence against women reported
for the past 12 years suggests that there is
an increased awareness of women’s rights
as reflected in the improved GGI of the
Philippines. As purported by Lopez-Claros &
Zahidi (2005), global gender gap measures
the extent of awareness of women’s rights on
critical areas such as economic participation
and opportunity, political empowerment,
educational attainment, and health and
well-being. As consistently cited by
Lopez-Claros and Zahidi (2005), Choe,
Cho and Kim (2016) and Hausmann, Tyson
and Zahidi (2010), women’s participation and
involvement measured awareness of women’s
rights as reflected in these critical areas used
as sub-indices of GGI.
The report of WEF on GGI recognizes
strong gender equality as a manifestation
of strong women empowerment efforts of
a country (Lopez-Claros & Zahidi, 2005).
In the 2017 Gender Gap Report of WEF,
Philippines has been ranked and scored in
the following sub-indices: in the health and
survival sub-index, the country ranked 36th
with a score of 0.979. The Philippines got the
1st rank together with the other 27 countries
including Australia, United States, and others,
with a score of 1.000 in educational attainment
sub-index. In the economic participation
and political empowerment sub-indices, the
country ranked 25th with a score of 0.764 and
as 13th with a score of 0.416 respectively.
As an overall rating, the Philippines ranked
as 10th with a GGI score of 0.790. Hence,
Filipino women, having an increasing trend of
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8. Deguma et al. JEHRD Vol.6, 2018
GGI, are empowered in these five critical areas
(Lopez-Claros & Zahidi, 2005). As reported by
the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW)
regarding labor and employment (2009a,
2009b, 2009c, 2009d) , there is 0.1 percent
increase in the labor force participation rate for
females in 2013 from 2005. While an increase
of 1.57 percent of automated national and local
election turnouts was also seen for women
political candidates from 18.4 percent in 2010
to 19.97 percent in 2013.
Moreover, in the government bureaucracy,
Civil Service data as of 2004 provided
that 58.7 percent of government personnel
(Professional Level) and 42 percent occupying
Career Execute Service (CES) position (3rd
level position) are women. Based on the
current projection (2010 to 2015) of life
expectancy, female life expectancy remained
higher at 73.14 years than men at 67.61
years. In the educational opportunities, the
female basic literacy rate of 96.1 percent
is one percent higher compared to men
literacy rate. Such reports coming from PCW
may be associated in the passing of laws
which protects women, a positive step of the
Philippine government in promoting gender
equality.
Filipino women being aware of their rights
could be a result of the implementation
of programs which promote women
empowerment. Rosche (2016) claimed
that the SDG on gender equality and
women’s right becomes possible through
advocacy undertakings of non-government
organizations. The establishment of
organizations such as Department of
Social Welfare and Development through
the Office of the Assistant Secretary for
Special Women’s and Children’s Concern,
Bathaluman Crisis Centre Foundation
Inc., Development of People’s Foundation,
Women’s Crisis Centre Institute, Harnessing
Self-Reliant Initiatives and Knowledge
(HASIK) & Women’s Legal Bureau,
Lihok Pilipina Foundation, GABRIELA,
and Philippine Commission on Women,
promotes gender and development advocacy,
psycho-social support, and provide an
affirming environment to female survivors of
domestic and intimate-relationship violence
(United Nation Development Fund for Women,
2001). Such undertakings promote social
welfare to Filipino women and are in harmony
with the interventions proposed by WHO
(2009) namely school-based, community and
media interventions.
Also, the state is mandated by the Philippine
1987 Constitution under Article XIII, Section
14 to protect women for them to realize
their full potential (Family and Community
Healing Center, n.d.). Other Philippine laws
protect women and children from violence, and
affirm the role of women in nation building
and ensure gender equality (FCHC, n.d.;
Crispin B. Beltran Resource Center, 2015).
These include the RA 9208-An Act to Institute
Policies to Eliminate Trafficking in Persons
Especially Women and Children; RA 7192 of
1992-The Women in Development and Nation
Building Act; RA 8353-The Anti-Rape Law
of 1997; RA 9262-The Anti-Violence Against
Women And Their Children Act Of 2004; RA
8972-The Solo Parents’ Welfare Act of 2000;
and RA 9710-the Magna Carta of Women Act
of 2009. PCW further asserts that continuous
information campaign on the law and its
strict implementation may have caused more
Filipino women to speak up and report abuse
since awareness on laws and services may be
rising (PCW, 2009a).
Although strong legislation to protect women
from violence is necessary, addressing the
problem at the grassroots level (home and
community) is indispensable (Carlson &
Randell, 2013). Hence, addressing gender
issues at the grassroots level which includes
the school setting bequeathing a lasting
impact on acquiring gender-sensitive attitude
among students. As purported by Jewkes
(2002), education is consistently noted as
conferring social empowerment for both men
and women. In the academe, gender equality,
through gender-neutral procedure has been
part of the agenda of most universities in
policy making (Husu, 2000) while designing a
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9. Deguma et al. JEHRD Vol.6, 2018
mechanism to eliminate gender discrimination
and promote equal opportunity for women
in the workplace (Winchester & Browning,
2015).
Conclusion and
Recommendations
The study aimed to determine the model for
the trend of reported cases of violence against
women and the GGI in the Philippines for
the past twelve years. It also provided a
sample forecast of reported cases of violence
against women and the GGI in the Philippines
for the next 10 years. More so, through
symbolic regression, it identified the model
that would best fit the relationship between
the reported cases of violence against women
and GGI in the Philippines. It found out that
the reported cases of violence against women
followed a quadratic trend while the GGI in
the Philippines followed a linear trend. It
also predicted that both reports continue to
increase in the next 10 years provided that the
same trend model will be used respectively in
forecasting. Furthermore, it established that
there is a positive relatedness between the two
reports wherein an increase of the reported
cases of violence against women may indicate
an increase in the GGI in the Philippines.
The association of these variables can provide
implications on the effect of the reported cases
of VAW on GGI in the country.
Indeed, some mechanisms to empower
women were established. These include the
passing of laws that uphold women’s rights
and the establishment of public and private
organizations that secure the protection of
women under these laws. Hence, both public
and private agencies’ effort to make women
socially aware of their rights thereby becoming
informed of the crime of violence against
them may have contributed to the increase of
awareness and number of reported cases of
violence against women.
The increase of the reported cases is an
effect of women being aware of their rights.
The government, however, must account and
address the increasing number of reported
cases through strict implementation of the
existing laws. Ponte and Enriquez (2016),
proposed that policy space to fulfill women’s
rights could be potentially enlarged. Such
is critically needed if positive change is to
happen for women (Ponte & Enriquez, 2016).
Strengthening gender and development
activities in every school would effectively
make all students gender sensitive which puts
forth gender equality on the right track from
the very beginning. Being aware of ones right
must be supplemented by a genuine response
from the government to protect women.
Some limitations considered in this study
that may guide future researchers, was that
the study used only the report of PNP on cases
of violence against women as compiled by
the PSA. Hence, the study limits its inference
based on the reported cases which may not
reflect the actual number of the occurrence
of the crime. Future researchers may utilize
another data from reports of other agencies
catering to similar issues on gender equality
and violence against women. Conducting
similar studies using different methodologies
may be done to capture another significant
aspect of the same issue.
To totally eradicate this trend in the
Philippine setting is uncertain, but as long as
the efforts to fight crimes of violence against
women are sustained, hope could be set high
to improve life for the future generations.
Acknowledgment
The researchers are grateful to Dr. Roberto
Padua who introduced his expertise to us
on Data Mining and the use of Symbolic
Regression Analysis as a method in doing
research. We are indebted to Dr. Padua in
helping us with conceptualizing and rigorously
and painstakingly revising our paper. The
same appreciation is also extended to the
CTU-Main Campus, College of Education
colleagues headed by Dr. Elpidio A. Melgo.
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10. Deguma et al. JEHRD Vol.6, 2018
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