Because of the pandemic, the promotion division explored other ways to adapt to the new normal and to restrict social gathering by reaching through other platforms such as radio and the social media in the dissemination of information relative women and children’s rights, the laws protecting them including CHR’s mandate as the Gender Ombud and the new Safe Spaces Act and other related issues. It is noted that majority of the cases affecting women and children in the region involved Violation of R.A. 9262 particularly on economic abuse, physical abuse and psychological abuse, Violation of R.A. 7610 and R.A. 8353 While these women and children victims of abuse are given remedies by law such as the filing of the proper complaints against the perpetrators, there are certain issues surrounding this remedy that affect the same, to wit: 4 a. In cases of economic abuse in relation to support, majority of the women only sought for redress such that they and their children will be provided with a reasonable amount of financial support for their sustenance. As such, resorts were made to amicably settle the matter and for the execution of memorandum of support. Thereafter, complainants will in due course submit their desistance. Nonetheless, in some cases, the parties obliged to support, notwithstanding the said memorandum, still failed to comply with the same prompting the women to return to the Commission and refile the case. To make things more difficult, in some of these cases, when forwarded to the proper forum, the same were eventually dismissed on the basis of the complainant’s prior desistance or merely for insufficiency of evidence. b. In cases of psychological abuse, it has been previously raised that the region lacked psychologists and psychiatrists including child psychologists who can assist the complainants for their rehabilitation and for coming up with proper evidence in building their case. Moreover, private psychologists and psychiatrists will entail expenses that majority of the complainants in the region who belong to poor families cannot afford. c. In case of psychological abuse, there were also some issues raised on the protocols in the conduct of the said assessment. While the same is being given free of charge by government psychologists, the certificate containing the findings thereof is not being issued unless there is a court order as a matter of the hospital procedure. This places the case at risk of dismissal considering that the abuse as alleged cannot be substantiated while at the Commission or the Prosecutor Office’s level. d. In cases of physical abuse, it has likewise been previously raised that there are concerns regarding the protocols on how complainants can avail of the services in government hospitals for medico-legal examination. Certain complaints had been reported to the regional office that they are being required to blotter the incident. As a matter of procedure, the said report will be presented to the hospital for the necessary examination. This particularly becomes problematic in cases the respondents are police officers and detailed in the particular office where the women are to blotter the incident. Other issues that the region identified are: a. The pandemic has posed a problem on the right to education of children noting that protocols mandated education and learning to be through online platforms or blended learning necessitating tools such as laptops, notebooks, computers and good internet connection which majority of the children in public schools do not have the capacity to procure. 4