Significance of the Study The study is significant as its results would ultimately benefit VAW survivors, as it helps the CHR and other agencies eventually design a practical intervention. It would likewise help out state actors in crafting future policies for the elimination of VAW as a social problema. Results would be a valuable reference for government agencies and local government units as well as non-government organizations in conducting Gender and Development (GAD) Programs. Scope and Limitations The study covers only VAW incidents and cases that have been reported and filed within Zamboanga City in January to December 2019 and January to July 2020. Time, budget restraints, and the restrictions brought about by COVID-19 such as barangay or sitio/drive lockdowns limited the research. The study was conducted from August to December, during General Community Quarantine (GCQ) and Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) amid a pandemic. The research excluded victims/survivors who resided in sitios or barangays that were on a lockdown as per the local Inter-Agency on COVID-19 Task Force during the height of the pandemic. Theoretical Framework of the Study: This research investigation leans on the Model of Moral Development and Ethical Decision-Making by Lawrence Kohlberg who, in 1958, proposed that there are three levels of moral development by which people move, linking moral understanding to cognitive development. These three levels of moral reasoning, argued Kohlberg, covered preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. Kohlberg agreed with Piaget’s (1932) theory of moral development at some point and applied the storytelling technique to tell people stories involving moral dilemas. In every case, he “presented a choice to be considered, for example, between the rights of some authority and the needs of some deserving individual who is being unfaily treated” as Kohlberg established that, by using chioldren’s responses to a series of 5

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