According to the latest data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority, more women in the Philippines were raped, physically abused, sexually exploited and trafficked in 2019 in comparison to the data from 2018. Nonetheless, this is not the only problem.

Recently, many rape victims open up in several social media platforms to voice out their traumatic stories of rape and how they were afraid to report the incident to the police because they were afraid to be discriminated or to be blamed. Victims of any form of sexual abuse are often accused or criticized for their choice of clothing and told that this triggers men to commit sexual crimes. Women are taught by the society to wear modest clothes just like Maria Clara and to be more careful around men. However, similar to the hundreds of innocent women, Maria Clara was also raped despite the fact that she was wearing conservative clothes.

Furthermore, the usual statement, “boys will be boys”, by people, particularly men, adds more fuel to the already socially incorrect thinking of rape and other sexual crimes. Such perception should never be an excuse for committing wrongful actions.

In the Philippines, a new wave of Filipinas is reawakened with intense purpose to stop victim blaming due to the increasing cases of unreported rape and sexual abuse. In order to prevent more cases of non-declared rape and sexual abuse to happen in the country, we should stand up against victim blaming. Rape is rape and there is nothing in between that could alter it.