19 blamed and humiliated by their family members and communities where they live. Victims are stigmatized for not being subservient to their husbands or for allegedly ‘blowing up’ or ‘exaggerating’ incidents which many believe should be kept as domestic issues. This reaction occurs among local barangay officials and other municipal offices as well. Children are even more easily intimidated and may be discouraged by their own parents from filing cases against their perpetrators. Several women who experience GBV tend to fear the processes involved in filing cases against their perpetrator. They are unable to afford legal or medical services, and lacking the financial capacity to support the filing of cases. Women are faced with a long list of requirements. These range from documentary to object evidence, to witnesses able to provide testimonial evidence.They are confronted by instances of victim blaming and often required to repeatedly relive their experiences as they formalize their statements in different agencies that require them to do so. In all these, women tend to lose trust in formal systems, especially in those whose staff are apathetic to them. In region 12, filing cases of GBV can be life threatening. Muslim women could be killed if they are up against influential families and especially if authorities decide that they lack evidence in their complaints, thereby exposing them to possible retaliation. Having little influence on government processes, CSOs find difficulty in helping GBV victims due to an unclear delineation of government agency responsibilities when handling GBV. Government service providers themselves are confused with their roles, aggravated by the lack in communication among agencies. CSOs also report that case processing is generally slow due to incompetent government staff who are unable to efficiently investigate cases. There is general dissatisfaction in some areas over services of PAO, the PNP, and barangay officials, whose operations are corrupted by red tape and padrino systems. There are also reports of biased judges and public lawyers who side with perpetrators especially if GBV victims come from poverty or do not have any connections with authorities. As a result, CSO staff and volunteers end up overworked and exhausted. Despite national and local policies on GBV, local government service providers lack the resources to ensure efficiency in GBV case management. Many lack awareness in concepts of GBV and are unaware of its proper management. Several also do not know how to use the GAD budget. Regions 1, 3, 8, 10, and CARAGA do not have psychologists. Some do not consistently have medico-legal doctors either. Facilities such as temporary shelters or private rooms for victims of GBV and other gender-friendly facilities are scarce. Region 11 service providers face challenges in monitoring relocation sites and other shelters which are unsafe for women and children. However, the region lacks facilities to move women to safer shelters. Many barangays officials are untrained in managing GBV. Often informally, a large majority of GBV cases are settled at the barangay level without forwarding incident reports to responsible government agencies. Some service providers actually think it best that cases are settled at the barangay level but such outcomes mean thar women may

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