FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION (FGD): Gender-Based Violence Referral Mechanism CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY There are also high-income earning women, within the 30 to 40 year-old age bracket, who come to Ms. Leonen’s office only to subsequently request for counselling under Ms. Leonen’s capacity as a private practitioner, due to fear of discovery or embarrassment. Most of these women initially tell her that they are suffering from depression but she eventually finds that they are actually subjected to violence by their spouses. She also shared that most of their clients, aside from women, are also children who are victims of sexual abuse. In segue, Ms. Leonen shared her growing concern over courts and law enforcement agencies in the city who require a psychological evaluation report before a case for sexual abuse on children can prosper, when in her own opinion, the medico-legal report should be sufficient for these cases to push forward. She stated that its because of the lack of a psychological evaluation report that some perpetrators get released or acquitted. According to Ms. Leonen, she has already raised this concern with some courts who have agreed that the psychological evaluation report may be subsequently filed instead of being a requirement for the case to be filed. Ms. Leonen also shared that she has teenage clients who have other sexual preferences. These teenagers are usually rejected in their own homes due to their gender expression and thus resort to the streets where they meet peers who give them acceptance, which is dangerous because, as a means for survival in the streets, most of these teenagers get into prostitution. Capt. Baldado stated that most of the victims reported to their station for violence are also children and teenage girls. Most of the young girls were raped by their own fathers or step-fathers. This usually happens in relocation areas. They also have a high number of juvenile delinquents in their station. Capt. Baldado however believes that these delinquents are just victims of their own circumstances since most of them come from poor and broken families, where the parents are separated or are living with another partner. There are also instances where the parents themselves abandon all care for their children, which he observed might be due to extreme poverty. He also observed that there is no proper referral mechanism in the barangay for victims and delinquents alike, which he attributed is perhaps due to the large population in the area. Thus, he shared that they have created an initiative in their own station to commit the youth victims and offenders to a programme, dubbed as LATIO, which aims to give them spiritual guidance for their holistic wellbeing. They have also partnered with Island Kids to send these youth victims and offenders to school. Kagawad Daano of Brgy. Bulua shared that for their part in Brgy. Bulua, they have assigned a point person for all VAWC concerns. Most of their reported incidence of VAWC are discovered when they implemented the 10:00 p.m. curfew. Most of those they have caught gallavanting beyond curfew are youth who have been subjected to prostitution for as low as fifty pesos (PhP 50.00). Based on their interviews, these children come from far-flung areas and most of them are children in conflict with the law (CICL). She also noticed that they come from disturbed families, most of them have mothers who are being abused by their fathers. On several instances, Kagawad Daano has coordinated these victims with the CSWD. Page 8 of 16