Facts: A woman received through multimedia message service (MMS) a picture of a naked woman with spread legs and with her face superimposed on the figure. The sender is her former boyfriend. After she got the obscene picture, she got other text messages from the former boyfriend. He boasted that it would be easy for him to create similarly scandalous pictures of her. And he threatened to spread the picture he sent through the internet.
Question: Is the former boyfriend liable for the crime of violence against women?
Answer: Yes. Violence against women include any form of harassment or violence that causes or will likely to cause substantial emotional or psychological distress to a woman with whom the accused has or had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a common child.
Thus, Republic Act. 9262 provides that:
SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. – As used in this Act,
(a) "Violence against women and their children" refers to any act or a series of acts committed by any person against a woman who is his wife, former wife, or against a woman with whom the person has or had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a common child, or against her child whether legitimate or illegitimate, within or without the family abode, which result in or is likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering, or economic abuse including threats of such acts, battery, assault, coercion, harassment or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.
x x x x
Section 5 identifies the act or acts that constitute violence against women and these include any form of harassment that causes substantial emotional or psychological distress to a woman. Thus:
SEC. 5. Acts of Violence Against Women and Their Children. – The crime of violence against women and their children is committed through any of the following acts:
x x x x
h. Engaging in purposeful, knowing, or reckless conduct, personally or through another, that alarms or causes substantial emotional or psychological distress to the woman or her child. This shall include, but not be limited to, the following acts:
x x x x
5. Engaging in any form of harassment or violence;
The elements of the crime of violence against women through harassment are:
1. The offender has or had a sexual or dating relationship with the offended woman;
2. The offender, by himself or through another, commits an act or series of acts of harassment against the woman; and
3. The harassment alarms or causes substantial emotional or psychological distress to her.
Question: For purposes of prosecuting the crime of violence against women, is it necessary that the woman must have engaged on some sexual act/s with the accused?
Answer: No. It is enough that the accused and the complaining woman had a dating relationship. "Dating relationship" refers to a situation wherein the parties live as husband and wife without the benefit of marriage or are romantically involved over time and on a continuing basis during the course of the relationship. A casual acquaintance or ordinary socialization between two individuals in a business or social context is not a dating relationship. "Romantically involved" does not imply sexual relation. The law did not use in its provisions the colloquial verb "romance" that implies a sexual act. It did not say that the offender must have "romanced" the offended woman. Rather, it used the noun "romance" to describe a couple’s relationship, i.e., "a love affair." The dating relationship that the law contemplates can, therefore, exist even without a sexual intercourse taking place between those involved. (RUSTAN ANG vs. COURT OF APPEALS, G.R.No. 182835, April 20, 2010)
Question: May the crime of violence against women be committed by a lesbian?
Answer: Apparently, yes. The law says that violence against women and their children" is committed by ANY person against a woman with whom the offender had sexual or dating relationship. Undeniably, a lesbian can possibly have a sexual or dating relationship with another woman.
No comments:
Post a Comment