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Manila: A Bill moved in the House of Representatives, if passed, envisages mandatory self-defence training for all girl students to help deter attacks of a sexual nature.
Representative Cynthia Villar of the congressional district of Las Pinas City, said House Bill 4775 mandates basic self-defence training at all levels of education.
Villar, chairperson of the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education, said crimes against women "affected the nation's efforts to achieve sustainable development and prosperity".
The Bill seeks to prepare young students for the worst of times by incorporating a self-defence regimen in the physical education programme of the Department of Education.
Technical education
The Bill also seeks to bring female students undergoing technical and vocational lessons at government-run Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) under its purview.
"It (self-defence training) shall also be part of the day-to-day routine of female employees and out-of-school women in each village, municipality, and province," Villar said and sought to draw attention to high-profile crimes committed against women.
Less than two weeks ago, five people, four of them children, were killed by an apparently deranged man in Atimonan town, south of Manila. According to reports, the victims were walking home in a remote village in Quezon province when they were waylaid and attacked with a knife.
Two of the victims, Elizabeth Dela Torre, 27, and her neighbour Rose Marie San Juan, 12, were raped before they were killed, police said.
Irreversible damage
The alleged attacker, identified as Mario Banal, was later arrested by authorities. Banal was found hanging in his jail cell last Wednesday after he apparently committed suicide.
"The pain, trauma and humiliation inflicted on the victims is irreversible. The instinct to defence oneself needs to be honed in such circumstances," she said. Students aside, the self-defence programme shall be offered to all female employees of private and semi-government offices.
Villar noted there had been a sharp rise in the sexual offences committed against Filipinas working overseas.
Overseas workers
For this reason, her proposal carries a provision that mandates all overseas Filipino workers under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to be required to undergo the programme.
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