How a group of young Filipino women is working to end gender-based violence
By: Jenny Peterlin
Tags: Gender Equality, Women, Women Empowerment, Violence Prevention, Grassroots

How a group of young Filipino women is working to end gender-based violence

Photo by Dawn Marie Castro

Dawn Marie Castro hails from Silay City, Negros Occidental, a province in the Visayas region in the Philippines. She currently works as an advocacy officer for a civil society network that helps formulate and implement the government’s national action plan for women, peace, and security. Earlier this month, we spoke with Dawn about her ongoing involvement with gender-based violence prevention. Her story highlights the work of women around the world to raise public awareness, implement policies, and increase sustainable resources aimed at ending violence against women.

This past summer, Dawn participated in the Harpswell ASEAN Program in Women’s Leadership, an annual two-week leadership program held in Penang, Malaysia for young women from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and Nepal. The program fosters a strong alumnae network where graduates stay in touch with each other, reinforce self-identity, and support one another in their efforts to bring about positive social change.

After participating in the Harpswell ASEAN Program, Dawn applied and received a grant from Harpswell to organize a panel discussion, in partnership with the Young Feminists Collective, that focused on the improvement of implementation practices for the 2019 “Bawal Bastos” law (also known as the Safe Spaces Act) with several government agencies, civil society organizations, and members of the Philippine Inter-Agency Council on Violence against Women and Children. Following is our conversation.

Harpswell: Could you introduce the Young Feminists Collective?

This Young Feminists Collective formation started out as the younger members of different organizations and different NGOs, who always met at meetings and conferences, coming together from different circles. We formed a bond with other sisters who were our age. And then the pandemic happened.

We immediately transitioned into a group that did fundraising, a group that looked for funds for beneficiaries. We just posted online and we reached out to our networks saying, ‘Hey, can you send just a small amount of money,’ and it became bigger and bigger and bigger. We were overwhelmed with all the support. But as the pandemic and the lockdown got longer and longer, we expanded what we did, and because of the restrictions, we discovered that a lot of online, sexual harassment, or even other types of abuses, started to become a bigger problem.

Harpswell: Could you tell us more about the Bantay Bastos Facebook page?

So some of us younger members of EveryWoman handled the Bantay Bastos page and group online. We introduced [this page] to the Young Feminist Collective to expand our network of help. Because especially in the pandemic, every day we keep receiving a lot of reports about Facebook posts or videos or Facebook chats of harassment leaking. So that’s where we started our collaboration. We introduced the Bantay Bastos group to the Young Feminist Collective and eventually, we’ve become the core group that runs the group now.

Its main objective was to show our united front of resistance against the culture of misogyny and sexism that is being perpetrated by higher-ranking officials and other public figures because this is what children see in the news and TV online.

We started our pitch for the Bantay Bastos Facebook page in 2018 with EveryWoman. It was two years after President Duterte was elected into office. We compiled misogynistic comments from high ranking officials and made some sort of a dossier for each of them and had sources detailing when and what was said. Its main objective was to show our united front of resistance against the culture of misogyny and sexism that is being perpetrated by higher-ranking officials and other public figures because this is what children see in the news and TV online. And that’s not how we want things to go.

This Facebook page has since evolved into a safe space and platform where women can share and talk about their experiences of misogyny in their daily lives.

Harpswell: What led you to apply for a grant from Harpswell? What did you hope to accomplish with the project?

In 2019, the Bawal Bastos law, or the Safe Spaces Act, was enacted, which penalizes catcalling, wolf-whistling, homophobic slurs, unwanted sexual advances and other forms of sexual harassment in public places, workplaces, schools, as well as an online spaces. So that was really a big step for us because finally, online harassment was recognized in the law.

Since then, the Bantay Bastos page continues to receive reports of incidents of harassment. We tried to make a mechanism that would help these women report these incidents to officials, but it was really hard for us, especially when government agencies don’t seem to know the process themselves. We are only a page where women report and we can’t do anything about [their experiences with harassment]. If women want to file a case, what should they do? We don’t know the legal steps for that.

So we kept on postponing action on this issue because we didn’t have funds. So when Harpswell mentioned that there was a funding opportunity, I talked to Alison [Pavia, the Executive Director of the Harpswell Foundation] and told her that we have this project and some sort of a plan for what we wanted the page to do next. This is where we conceptualized a round table discussion with government agencies because they’re the ones who are supposed to implement the law anyway - that’s their function! But really, in the Philippines, that’s one of our major problems. We have a lot of legislation, but the implementation is another story.

Note: The panel discussion included leaders from the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW), the Department of Justice, and the Philippine National Police. At the end of the meeting, leaders from PCW committed to finalizing the reporting mechanisms for survivors. Other panelists from the Philippine National Police voiced alternative ways on how victim-survivors can report cases. A link to the panel discussion on Facebook can be found here.

Harpswell: Could you share a little bit about how you became interested in domestic violence and sexual assault prevention?

The fight against violence against women is very personal to me. I have my own fair share of experiences, which is a sad reality for all, we all have our own fair share of experiences with different types of sexual harassment or, or maybe physical or emotional or, different types of violence. You know, this is a shared experience of women, not just in the Philippines, not just in the United States, or in ASEAN, it’s the whole world and we have experienced this in varying degrees. And maybe I’m just lucky to be one of those who are privileged enough to have this space, or have this capacity to speak out. And ever since I wanted to help other women find their voice, you know, not become their voice, because they have their own stories. Really, it’s just so sad to realize that we all have this shared experience.

Harpswell: What does being a young leader in this field mean to you?

I think I’m the influence. I see this in [my relationship with] my younger brother. He’s not like the other teens out there. I tell him all this stuff, and remind him that it’s not good to talk about girls negatively. I tell him that if you have the chance to call people out, you call them out, you call other boys out. He listens to me and also tries to influence his friends. So in my mind, if I can only influence other people to do the same in their family, to talk to their inner circle, it will be a web of positivity.

We have to put an end to this cycle of violence, especially us, the younger women, younger people. And it’s not younger women- younger men also have to be involved, because we have to stop this systemic problem together.

Harpswell: Why is it important for women to engage in violence prevention?

It is important because it hits close to home. Misogyny has perpetrated rape culture, it is normalized in popular culture, it is perpetrated through the objectification of women’s bodies, of sexual violence, therefore creating a society that disregards women’s’ rights and safety. We have to put an end to this cycle of violence, especially us, the younger women, younger people. And it’s not younger women- younger men also have to be involved, because we have to stop this systemic problem together. Because if only young women know about this, and young men don’t know, [the problem] is still going to be there.

Harpswell: What advice do you have for women looking to work in this space?

My advice for younger women is to start within your circle, maybe within your homes, maybe within your families, your friends. You may never know who may need your help, or maybe, you don’t realize it, but you’ve already helped someone. Violence against women hurts the whole community, and there are many ways that we can help in ending it. There are many things that you can do, you can check out our page if you want more tips. But also, with that, some important advice is also to consider your own safety and well-being. Because, you know, working with these kinds of issues is very draining for mental and physical health and safety. So we always have to take care of ourselves. We have our well being to take care of.

This Q&A was condensed from an interview.