Battered women

This is supposed to be none of our business, like the marriage of the First Couple. Since the protagonists themselves in the Kris-Joey affair have come out in public, however, to discuss their most intimate problems, we might as well get something good out of this sordid affair.

And what could that be? For one, Congress could finally pass the bill that aims to protect women from physical abuse. Aurora Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo is the principal author of the bill called the Anti-Abuse of Women in Intimate Relations.

For another, Kris Aquino’s example could encourage more battered women to stop suffering in silence and seek professional help, or at least solace from sympathetic souls. The women’s group Gabriela estimates that 13 women are battered daily in Metro Manila alone.

It’s not only uneducated women from poor families who are victims of physical abuse. I know highly educated women from privileged backgrounds who are battered wives. They bear the suffering and grin in public either out of blind love for their men or from acute shame.

I’m not saying with certainty that Parañaque Mayor Joey Marquez is guilty, since this case could land him in prison and end his careers in both politics and show biz. Already his party, the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, has reportedly junked him as its congressional bet for Parañaque.

But Marquez uttered a typical chauvinist reaction to the accusation of physical abuse — that Kris likes to inflict harm on herself. And between the two of them, Kris gave the more persuasive presentation of her case.

If women who are educated and rich can’t bring themselves to seek help when physically abused by the men they love, you can imagine the torment of women who lack the education and resources to protect themselves.

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Kris’ plight could also embolden women to be more open about sexually transmitted diseases and therefore get better treatment. The most embarrassed to seek help are women who catch STD from philandering husbands or lovers.

As of yesterday the Kris-Joey drama had degenerated into the hunt for the source of Joey’s STD (so far he has made no convincing denial of this point). Every woman linked to him naturally denied being the source. So now we know more or less who are the women Joey has been fooling around with – the reason for Kris’ periodic fits of jealousy.

Meanwhile, what do the bishops have to say? They just want parents to remind their kids, who must have seen the Kris-Joey drama on prime time TV, that it’s not cool to have STD, and it’s not cool to grab anyone by the balls.

As I’ve told a bemused friend from abroad, the moon is always full in Manila.

Kris’ plight should also provide impetus for the promotion of safe sex. There is one looming problem here: the US Agency for International Development is cutting off funding for contraceptives nationwide starting next year, so expect fewer Filipinos, especially in depressed communities, to plan their families or even use condoms.

And we can’t expect the devoutly Catholic President Arroyo to do anything about the problem.

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BATTERED RATINGS: President Arroyo isn’t interested in STD or family planning. And if someone in the First Family will file a complaint for physical abuse and grave threats it will probably be the First Gentleman.

What the President is interested in are her poll ratings, which incidentally seem to rise and fall with those of her US counterpart George W. Bush. Like Mrs. Arroyo, the US president’s ratings have plunged to an all-time low, according to reports yesterday, and his standing in the international community could also use a major boost.

Now the Bush administration is jittery over the rise in the polls of Army Gen. Wesley Clark, the retired NATO commander who’s being projected by some Democrats as the man who can get the United States out of its national security quagmire.

As supreme allied commander in Europe, Clark had supervised the 78-day bombing of Kosovo. He has argued that America’s biggest mistake post-9/11 was its failure to engage the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as an ally in the war on terror. Thus the war on terror was seen merely as Bush’s war.

Clark, 58, is a Rhodes scholar from Arkansas like that Democrat who spent eight years at the White House, Bill Clinton. And unlike draft dodger Bill, Clark topped his class at West Point, fought in Vietnam and received the Purple Heart and Silver Star.

For all his impressive credentials, Clark is seen by some quarters as a self-aggrandizing opportunist. But then who isn’t in the world of politics? There is also speculation in Washington that he is merely a stalking horse for Bill’s wife, and that Clark will eventually drop out of the presidential race in favor of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The Bushies are hoping his visit to this region next month for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit will give his numbers a boost.

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Washington is finalizing a military aid package Bush can present to President Arroyo in Manila on Oct. 18. Meanwhile, the commander of the US Air Force in the Pacific, Gen. William Begert, is in town, discussing the possibility of joint military air exercises between the two countries.

For about a year now the Americans have been looking at reactivating Crow Valley in Central Luzon for airborne military training exercises. A compensation package is reportedly being mulled for the use of Crow Valley. Under the political circumstances, this looks more iffy to me than the stalled Balikatan part 2.

Even without a deal on Crow Valley or Balikatan, however, Bush will be trying to strengthen partnerships in the region for the war on terror. In Southeast Asia at least some progress has been made with the arrest of the top commanders of Jemaah Islamiyah, the terrorist group loosely affiliated with al-Qaeda. There’s JI’s Indonesian bomb-maker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi still to be accounted for, of course, which is why Washington is trying to strengthen the weakest link in the war on terror in this part of the world.

If Iraq is such a mess, can the Bush administration do better in Southeast Asia?