Hontiveros seeks probe of sexual abuse in PHSA

SEN. Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros has sought a Senate investigation on the reported “culture of abuse”, harassment and violence at the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA).

Hontiveros filed a resolution to investigate the alleged gender-based sexual harassment, emotional abuse and other violence experienced by alumni and students of the government-run boarding school.

The senator also wants the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality to look into possible violations of the Safe Spaces Act.

“Educational and training institutions should be our children’s safe spaces,” Hontiveros stressed in a statement on Wednesday.

“It is imperative that the Senate, exercising its oversight powers, initiate a thorough but expeditious investigation on the matter to ensure that PHSA and other educational institutions are safe spaces, especially with the upcoming blended/face-to-face classes in August,” the resolution stated.

Hontiveros, principal author of the Safe Spaces Act, had said that the victims have come forward and revealed their “harrowing experiences”.

Her office met with some of them and was informed that a PHSA student, a minor, has formally filed a complaint against a non-teaching staff after being catcalled in November 2019 on campus.

According to a report, there were already other complaints filed, but they were “downplayed” by the PHSA administration, brushed off as hearsay and were not entertained for failing to comply with the “format required under existing Civil Service rules.”

“Worse, survivors of abuse claimed to have been victim-blamed, silenced and neglected by the PHSA administrators,” Hontiveros said in a statement on Wednesday.

Under the Safe Spaces Act, she said schools are “required to provide a gender-sensitive environment and confidential mechanism for the reporting and redress of grievances on matters of sexual and gender-based harassment.”

“Schools are considered second home that was why, we, parents, should feel at ease when we entrust our children [to their schools],” Hontiveros said in Filipino.

She also raised the need to review the reporting protocols and the procedures of the Committee on Decorum and Investigation of the educational institutions tasked “to investigate and address complaints of abuse and harassment.”

The inquiry also seeks “to determine the lapses and to propose corresponding reforms to improve implementation of the Safe Spaces Act and other child protection policies.”

“If the accounts are accurate, the repeated failure of the PHSA administration to address the violence and abuses is a blatant violation of the Safe Spaces Act and a flagrant disregard of the interests of PHSA students — interests they are duty bound to protect and promote as persons reposed with special parental authority,” Hontiveros said.