End victim blaming. When victims are accused and put on trial in public, the paradox and malice of a culture of impunity are insidious in the public consciousness, as their guilt is already presumed simply because they were attacked. It becomes clear that it has a significant impact on
The harrowing ramifications of the September 1, 2022 ambushing of lawyer Karen Q. Gonzalez and her teenage son in the city of Mandaue focus on how the former’s professional and personal life prompted the attack. It was online speculation.
In a statement condemning the attack on the mother and son, the Cebu Port Authority (CPA), where Gonzalez heads the business and marketing department, urged citizens to “share insensitive media posts about the incident or disclose personal information of victims. Please do not disclose it further.” It could put your safety and privacy at risk,” the Sunstar Cebu team of Lorene Mondonedo Inotto, Benji B. Talisic and Honey I. Kotejo reported on Friday, Sept. 2.
After former Cebu City Deputy Attorney Mary Ann Castro was ambushed and murdered by an unidentified assailant on January 17, 2019, an online scrutiny of victims produces flashbacks to misogyny.
Both Castro and Gonzalez are celebrities in some ways, and Gonzalez has been lauded as an occasional actor who plays roles with sympathy in independent films, and Castro has spoken outspokenly about the controversies associated with her.Victim and the victim is equated with powerlessness and blame.
Online rudeness in crimes involving women promotes a culture of impunity by scrutinizing victims as if they are responsible for attracting violence and deflecting cries for justice and accountability from perpetrators. It is specific to the network that
According to Ifex, a global association of over 100 non-governmental organizations that promote freedom of expression and freedom of access to information, impunity means that acts that violate an individual’s life, human rights and freedoms do what the perpetrator does. means that it only affects victims and society without any impact on
In a culture of impunity, this consequence and lack of accountability for perpetrators has a chilling effect on citizens, especially those made vulnerable by relationships with victims and beliefs, advocacy, and powerlessness and marginalization.
A culture of impunity puts citizens under constant threat of being punished for expressing opinions that go against those in power and for meeting their professional and civic responsibilities.
Restraints snowball from self-censorship to paranoia and distrust of the social institutions that are supposed to stabilize society through upholding the rule of law, social justice and civil liberties.
A Sept. 2 SunStar Cebu report cited a statement from the Philippine Integrated Bar Association (IBP) Cebu City Chapter regarding the ambush of lawyer Gonzalez and his son, saying 14 lawyers had been killed in Cebu since 2004.
Many of the victims “still have not been given the justice they have learned and served their entire lives,” said an IBP Cebu City spokesman.
In a March 15, 2021 article by Carlos H. Conde, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said 110 lawyers had been killed between 1972 and 2021, 61 of them since 2016. It cited data collated by the news website Rappler. President Rodrigo Duterte started his administration.
Since 2004, only seven cases have been prosecuted in which the victim was a lawyer. HRW assesses this pattern as demonstrating a “lack of accountability for serious crimes in the Philippines.”
Despite the tentacles of “fear, indifference and suspicion” that paralyze the cynical public at the threats, attacks and murders carried out with impunity against lawyers, journalists, activists, indigenous peoples and other vulnerable groups, Ifex claims: It is invincible no matter how established it is. ”
Citizens can start by calling for insensitive and disrespectful online discussions denouncing victims of violence and pressuring authorities to bring perpetrators to justice.
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