Enough Is Enough (EIE) has broadened its call to amend Republic Act (RA) 11313 or the Safe Spaces Act, more popularly known as the ‘Bawal Bastos Act’, to “standardize an anti-retaliation policy to protect victim-survivors from both predators and enablers as they come forward.”
EIE – a group of victim-survivors of sexual abuse, and advocates for gender equality – has been pushing for four major demands regarding amendments to the 2019 law, namely:
- mandating schools to provide psychological, legal, and financial support for victim-survivors,
- predators and enablers being charged with criminal and administrative cases,
- revoking professional licenses and the blacklisting of campus predators, and
- establishing a publicly-available national registry of sex offenders.
The fifth demand – i.e. standardization of an anti-retaliation policy to protect victim-survivors from both predators and enablers – was added since “five years after the passing of the Safe Spaces Act, there is still no guarantee we are safe in our own schools, let alone any guarantee the justice sought by victim-survivors who share their stories, as if the stigma they face isn’t enough,” stated Sophie Reyes, EIE lead convenor. “We stand unified in taking justice into our own hands, not just for victim-survivors who have come forward, but also for those who have never received the support and encouragement to do so.”
Thus far, EIE reports at least 61 incidents of campus predators, noting that there were multiple cases that have either been dropped or remained unresolved, and multiple predators who have yet to face any repercussions.
“For as long as the status quo remains, where the media can continue to report cases of sexual violence and our national leaders can express their sympathy without taking any form of action, predators and enablers will remain more protected than the youth,” she ended.
