EDITORIAL - The Pied Piper of battered husbands

Cebu City Councilor Gerry Carillo says battered husbands can ask for a barangay protection order from their respective barangay captains. Whether Carillo is just trying to be funny or not is difficult to tell. Coming out of the blue, his announcement did take a wee bit of the limelight away from women as they celebrate Women's Month this month.

According to the DSWD, there have been no battery complaints filed by any husbands that it knows of or has recorded. The police probably haven't either. In short, Carillo did just as we described it -- came out of the blue. But why? Why would Carillo, out of all the possibilities in the world, suddenly come out with an announcement about where battered husbands can seek help.

To be sure, there has got to be battered husbands out there. It simply taxes credulity to imagine there is none. Based on that valid assumption, Carillo must have deduced that while there are indeed battered husbands, they probably do not know where to go for help, hence the lack of any records of complaints filed anywhere. Carillo's assumption, as is everybody else's, is correct. But it takes off on the wrong premise.

It is not because battered husbands do not know where to go for help that there are no records whatsoever of husband battery anywhere. The reason for the absence of any recorded complaints of husband battery is that there is no "self-respecting" battered husband (if self-respect even survives such battering) willing to surface and make a spectacle of his ignominious domestic punishment.

A battered husband will probably just turn the other cheek for more battering, or take to some vice, such as drinking, and thus court even more battering. But not for the life of him will a battered husband advertise his cuts and bruises. It is probably far more bearable for a battered husband to absorb more punishment than be exposed and suffer further humiliation in the eyes of his fellows (who probably are battered themselves but ain't talking).

Even if husband battery does not involve physical assault but is limited to verbal abuse, which is perhaps the more common and prevalent form of battering that husbands suffer or undergo, the lack of physical manifestations that make battering so shameful is still not enough compelling reason for husbands to go where Carillo wants them to go.

In short, the Carillo announcement -- or advice -- is an open and shut case. And the only reason why we even dignified it with this piece is that bringing it forth may help to shine some light on Carillo himself. Carillo is a city legislator with a mandate to legislate for the good of all city residents. Anything that he, or any other Cebu City official for that matter, always deserves some measure of public scrutiny. So then, what's your take on the Carillo battered husband initiative?