Proposals to expand the scope of the country’s anti-violence against women and children (VAWC) laws by defining and including abuses perpetrated electronically have been approved by a House of Representatives panel.
During the House committee on women and gender equality’s hearing on Tuesday, panel chair and Laguna 1st District Rep. Ann Matibag approved a motion to approve in principle and consolidate House Bills (HB) No. 217, 1394, 2013, 2420, 4071, 4779, 5228, and 5642, which define what acts constitute electronic violence against women.
Gabriela party-list Rep. Sarah Elago, one of the bill’s authors, made the motion, considering that the proposed measure was already exhaustively discussed and approved during the 19th Congress.
‘Since we have seen an overwhelming support from our resource speaker as well as all our invited guests, and our government agencies present here, I would like to manifest that the e-VAWC bill that has been exhaustively deliberated upon in the previous congresses and was approved by the House of Representatives and transmitted to the Senate in the 19th Congress, in this regard I would like to make a motion to approve the bill in principle,’ Elago said.
‘There was also a motion to approve the bill in principle and for the secretariat to come up with a substitute bill [.] are there any objections? The chair hears none, the motion is approved,’ Matibag replied.
All bills seek to amend Republic Act No. 9262 or the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004 by adding ‘electronic or information and communications technology (ICT) devices’ in the means of committing violations to the said law.
Under HB No. 2013 which was authored by Matibag herself, the following actions are considered as electronic or ICT-related violence:
recording, distribution, use, reproduction, sharing or uploading of any photograph, vide?, or other forms of electronic or artistic presentation showing or depicting in any form or manner the genitalia of a woman or those of her children’s genitalia, pubic area, buttocks, breasts, excretory body part or function, nudity, scenes with sexual context or portrayal of sexual conduct such as sexual intercourse, masturbation, kissing, caressing, hugging, and petting
recording, reproduction, distribution, use, sharing or uploading of any photograph, vide?, or any other form of electronic or artistic presentation exhibiting any sexually-related verbal or nonverbal expression or gesture of the woman and/or her children which may be construed as lewd, indecent, or obscene
recording, reproduction, distribution, use, sharing or uploading of any photograph, vide?, or any other form of electronic or artistic presentation depicting any purported violent or errant behavior of the woman and/or her children, or the use of intoxicating or prohibited substances or drugs reproduction
any similar recording, distribution, use, sharing or uploading of any audio presentation and data, including sound clips of the same nature
use of a photograph, video, voice recording, name or any mark, reference or character identifiable with a woman and/or her children and suggestive of a wrongdoing, conduct or attribute that tends to besmirch the reputation of the woman and/or her children
harassing, intimidating, coercing, threatening or vilifying the woman and/or her children through text messaging or other cyber, electronic, or multimedia technology
stalking, including the hacking of personal accounts on social networking sites and the use of location data from electronic devices
fabrication of fake information or news through text messaging or other cyber, electronic, or multimedia technology
creation of fake social media accounts using an alias or a different individual’s personal information resulting in harm to the woman and/or her children’s reputation
Dinagat Islands Rep. Kaka Bag-ao proposed an amendment to Matibag’s bill, to include in R.A. No. 9262’s scope violence perpetrated or condoned by members of the state.
‘Madam Chair we’d like to join the committee chair and to express my intention to be a co-sponsor of House Bill 2013, and just to be short, just to add to the amendment, the amendment of Section 3, letter a [.] I will just introduce one sentence,’ Bag-ao said.
”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, et cetera.’ At the end of the sentence, I would like to introduce the sentence ‘It shall also refer to physical, sexual, and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the state,’ she added.
The motion was approved by Elago, who was presiding over the hearing during that moment, after Matibag accepted Bag-ao’s amendment.
Last May 2023, during the 19th Congress, House Bill No. 8009 – a consolidation of four bills defining electronic violence against women and children, was approved on second reading.
It was eventually approved on third reading before the 19th Congress adjourned its session.
Similar to the proposed measure discussed earlier, HB No. 8009 sought to amend Section 3 of Republic Act No. 9262 by defining psychological violence as an action that can also be committed through ‘physical, verbal, emotional, electronic or information and communications technology (ICT) devices or other means’. /das