And on another note, yesterday we reported that Senior JPs will now be the intermediaries between victims of abuse and the law when courts are closed. But a concern raised by the President was that victims might rescind their reports after making them. Well, we spoke to the Minister of Human Development, Thea Ramirez-Garcia, who explained that when a first-time abuse victim takes back their report, they expect that, but they continue encouraging them to make the report until someday it sticks:
Thea Garcia-Ramirez, Minister of Human Development
"If you are working with men and women because we don't just see women who are survivors of domestic violence, but men also, you expect that this is going to happen. On average it takes a person, a survivor 8 times trying to leave a situation before they finally make it, a lot of people don't make it out alive. So, what would I say? I would say keep trying, keep trying, if it takes you 20 times before you break out of a situation then we keep trying 20 times with you. Ofcourse it might be a lot of paperwork for the other person on the other end taking the reports but that's their job and they theyre paid to do their job as police officers, officers of the family support and gender affairs are paid to their job, social workers are paid to do their jobbed so we are here for you as many times as you put in the report and you take it back, that shouldn't even be a question that should have no bearing on it so if it takes 100 times and you pull back 99 times we wait until the report sticks and you are able and ready to face the situation and we're here to support everyone that does that."
