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In today’s modern society, it is not uncommon for women to hold jobs, manage businesses, and earn income that is equal to and, sometimes, even greater than that of their husbands or boyfriends. Powerful career women personify a modern day sexiness that is valued in the same way that virginity and subservience were admired in our grandparents’ day. Today, a woman makes a personal choice to pursue a career while accomplishing the truly remarkable feat of balancing a personal and family life of her own.

 

Because economic freedom plays such a vital role in women empowerment, our lawmakers have coined the term “economic abuse”, which punishes a very common form of abuse, i.e., the act of depriving a woman of her right to be self-sufficient. Republic Act 9262, otherwise known as “Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004", defines economic abuse as acts that make or attempt to make a woman financially dependent such as:

1. withdrawal of financial support or preventing the victim from engaging in any legitimate profession, occupation, business or activity, except in cases wherein the other spouse/partner objects on valid, serious and moral grounds;

2. deprivation or threat of deprivation of financial resources and the right to the use and enjoyment of the conjugal, community or property owned in common;

3. destroying household property;

4. controlling the victims' own money or properties or solely controlling the conjugal money or properties.

If convicted of any of these acts, the violator may be punished with imprisonment of up to six (6) years. The good news to the woman is that she does not even need to wait years to obtain a conviction before she can put a stop to the economic abuse because the court may issue a temporary protection order (TPO) soon after she files her complaint. A TPO can include restrictions, directives and prohibitions against the violator which will enable the victim to independently regain control over her life, be it ordering the violator to give the victim immediate financial support, the possession of a car, or the removal of the offender from the dwelling, and so on.

‘Economic abuse as acts that make or attempt to make a woman financially dependent’

The Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act is a powerful law that protects women and children from not just economic abuse, but also from physical and emotional abuse. Some people have criticized this law as being gender-biased because women are not the only ones who may experience abuse in a relationship. In fact, some may argue that equality should not warrant the special treatment to women which is sanctioned by this law.  

Maybe someday, when the term “weaker sex” no longer has a practical application in our vocabulary, when women and men are on absolutely equal footing in all facets of life and by their treatment in society, the law would be revised to apply to both sexes without distinction. But until then, the steps lawmakers take to protect women from abuse can only be viewed as a giant leap for womankind.