Shadows on the Wall
Sexual Harassment Survivors Under Bureaucracy
By Julia Emelene Mendoza & Luisa Gabriela Jarabe
Content warning: mention of sexual abuse and harassment
Invisibility is often viewed as a superpower. Invisibility grants invincibility — without the public’s scorching eyes and judgment, you feel free to do anything. Under the shadows of broken bureaucratic and oppressive systems however, the same invisibility is turned against harassment survivors whose cases are left unheard and perpetrators empowered.
Gabby*, a student from the University of the Philippines Manila who was sexually harassed by her schoolmate, has been treading under the shadows for more than a year. Hidden under the guise of a friend wanting to catch up, her perpetrator turned the verbal into physical, making his desire for sexual attention apparent. With the perpetrator being twice her size, she froze in fear and disbelief. He was persistent, regardless of her efforts to change the subject, physically avoid him, or her shift in body language. While she did not immediately recognize that she was harassed, to her, one thing was crystal clear: this should not be happening.
With her perpetrator still lurking in the dark, Gabby initially decided to keep things quiet, only confiding in her closest friends. “At first, hindi ako nag-report. Natakot ako na baka lumaki pa ‘yung issue, and I was still in-denial,” she explains. It was only when survivors of the same perpetrator began speaking up that she began to change her mind.
Horrific accounts of on- and off-campus sexual harassment began surfacing on the UP Manila Freedom Wall’s (UPM FW) Facebook page during the final quarter of 2024. The Facebook page became an avenue for anonymity, a safe space for survivors to share their stories. Their invisibility granted invincibility, allowing them to bravely name their perpetrators and detail the events in which sexual misconduct was inflicted on them. However, some followers of the freedom wall began questioning whether such grievances should be publicized through the Facebook page, pointing out that the university has designated offices dedicated to handling their concerns. While such discussion prompted varying opinions, the university’s student body began making noise about the posts.
As more voices joined the discourse, Gabby realized she was not alone. She then considered filing a report in the hopes of reducing the credibility of her perpetrator, penalizing him, and finally putting the entire situation to rest.
The University Student Handbook allots a section for the Anti-Sexual Harassment (ASH) Code, which loosely defines Sexual Harassment, while vaguely categorizing acts of sexual misconduct according to severity and its corresponding remedies. The code also specifies the members and functions of the ASH Council, the hearing committee, and the Office of Anti-Sexual Harassment (OASH), which possess jurisdiction over all cases of sexual misconduct. While the office is slowly handling active cases at present, OASH Director Dr. Valerie Guinto denies knowledge of whether these cases are connected to the Freedom Wall posts.
Gabby filed a report with the Office of Student Services (OSS), upon the initiative of the office. But since OSS does not have jurisdiction sexual harassment cases, especially those that happened off-campus, they resolved to create a special committee to such cases. As of October 28, 2024, the special committee submitted their recommendations to improve the process of handling cases and support for the survivors of sexual harassment.
In a Facebook comment under the UPM FW’s post on the 29th of October in 2024, Dr. Jo Teves of the OSS confirms that all survivors who reported to the OSS have been emailed, all organizations based in the College of Arts and Sciences have been updated, and that a special committee has already been formed for the said reports. However, as of writing, there has been no further action on Gabby’s case since then. “Hindi pa rin nag-reach out ‘yung committee. [They said that] it was supposed to be a 5-member committee and [the report] will be addressed ‘as soon as possible’,” Gabby explains.
Gabby also recounts the bureaucratic nature of the processes she went through for filing a case. The amount of paperworks made the process feel technical and inaccessible, to the point where she felt as though the office’s response is merely mechanical — “Gusto ba talaga nilang pakinggan, mabigyan ng solusyon?,” Gabby questions. Unfortunately, existing anti-sexual harassment policies, like the ASH Code, remain vague in their definitions of Sexual Harassment, consent, and the classifications of the severity of the harassment. Survivors would then have to brave the conundrum of being stuck in a lengthy and draining cycle, constantly having to prove that they were harassed, uncertain if justice will be served. Their perpetrators are either walk away scot-free, or penalized too late. Such major flaws in the process leave survivors like Gabby discouraged.
With her identity concealed, as with other survivors, the irony is apparent to Gabby, with victims feeling more shame than the perpetrator. “Dapat ‘yung perpetrators ‘yung nahihiya — paulit-ulit lang ang mga violations niya. Sana mas mahiya ‘yung mga harassers; they should take accountability.”
“We were friends. It was hard to draw the line whether I was being violated or not,” Gabby recalls. Like other survivors of sexual misconduct, people in close proximity to the survivor play a crucial role in the survivor’s experience. Many find it difficult to believe their trusted friends would have the intention of taking advantage of them, allowing perpetrators to quietly lurk in the shadows of trust. What makes it even more painful for survivors is the careful dance of doubt as sexual misconduct happens — survivors like Gabby do not realize that they are being violated during the moment.
“Hindi pumasok sa isip ko na I was being violated; what if he was just being friendly? It was only my friends who helped me realize after he left,” Gabby says. Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority reveals that 17.5% of female survivors were violated by a person close to them. This statistic does not account for unreported cases, much like Gabby’s.
The guiding hand of a robust support system including responsive first aid, credible counseling, reliable legal assistance, and a network of trusted people allows survivors to fully realize their situations. In Gabby’s case, systemic and bureaucratic failures forced her to turn to her closest friends to discuss her experience and listen to her intuition. Pursuing a case and seeing it to the end is a cross most survivors choose not to carry under a broken bureaucratic system to prioritize their healing. While healing from the traumatic experience is of utmost importance for all survivors, doing so in isolation in the face of other cases only worsens social and systemic issues.
The doubt and mockery, insistence for clear-cut evidence, limitations to the bureaucratic process, and fatigue of constantly recalling traumatic sexual abuse/harassment experiences force survivors to be content with being overshadowed by their perpetrators’ bright facades. The UP Manila Freedom Wall, as an outlet students used to channel their anger for social and structural injustices, reveals that the problem was not just an overnight sensation: it was a slow breeding of sexual harassment culture that UPM’s administrative structures have been far too lenient with for decades.
Zooming out of UP shows the graver lack of justice for survivors and accountability for perpetrators with more daunting bureaucracies and social expectations. 50% of female survivors in the Philippines chose not to report their cases right after the incident, with 20% reporting that they were overcome with fear. Decades of survivors hiding in the dark while their perpetrators continue to enjoy the comfort of social acceptance are far too many.
It is about time students, faculty, and administrators shed light onto the cultures they breed within their niches because rape culture does not reach the extremes without the foundations of smaller forms of sexual misconduct: unwanted sexual jokes, groping, locker room banter, to name a few. Furthermore, there must be a proper review and redesign of the bureaucratic processes that aim to ‘help’ survivors of all levels. Cultivating a holistic and survivor-centered safe space in the university means pushing administrators for proper consultations with its stakeholders, sensitivity training for its personnel, and streamlining aid and services for all survivors.
Without the foundations of better social acceptance for those who step into the limelight and streamlined system aid, survivors will continue to hide in the shadows, alone and blind to the dangers that continue to surround them. And right by their shoulders are the perpetrators that seamlessly blend into their surroundings: lurking, waiting.
* For her privacy and safety, the interviewee requested to use a Pseudonym.
