Dangerous Curves Ahead: Curbing Sexual Harassments against Female Mobility in Public Transport

Penelope Iole Endozo

Ped Xing is the male character in yellow-marked street signs along sidewalks and roads referring to ‘pedestrian crossing’. While this character represents public road safety for about 16 million male and female commuters in metro Manila, not many people realize that public road safety includes protection against offensive sexual harassments too.

“Sexual harassment can happen to anyone,” says Mary Scheree Lynn Herrera, a graduate student of UP College of Social Work and Community Development, “and it does happen in public transport.”

These 16 million commuters mainly travel from home to work or school, commute to get household needs and groceries, and to visit recreational areas on a daily basis, according to the Department of Transportation and Communication 2006 factbook.

Herrera considered her pioneering two-year study on sexual harassment in public transport as a start of her advocacy to lobby an amendment to the current anti-sexual harassment act. In her study, it was shown that there are currently no legal measures to protect commuters who have been harassed while in taxis, jeepneys, buses, light rail vehicles.

Although the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act or Republic Act 7877 was enacted last 2005, it contains provisions for penalties against sexual offenses done in school or workplace, but not while in public transportation. As such, the penalties provided include one to three months of imprisonment and fine of ten to twenty thousand pesos. Herrera’s study claimed that the said law is weak since not many women know about it and is hardly implemented.

When asked why she did this study, Herrera openly said that she had her own sad experience in high school in a jeepney and the lack of redress for this type of grievance made her a victim with no where to go.

‘Gender Blindness’ in Public Road Safety

For the motoring and commuting public, the main concern had always been prevention of road accidents. As it is a legitimate concern, this however dismisses sexual harassment cases at bay. Sexual offenses are then considered as ‘petty cases,’ as described by Lito Salazar, a long-time administrative officer of the Light railway Transit Authority.

Among the eight government agencies that plan and implement road safety for pedestrians and commuters, only the Philippine National Police-Traffic Management Group (PNP-TMG) and Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) have a gender-based program to meet women’s needs in public road safety.

The PNP-TMG had their one-time gender awareness development seminar held last September 11, 2006 in San Fernando Pampanga. While DOTC established the Gender and Development Technical working Group (GAD-TWG) in 2006 which initiated the all-female carriage train among the light train vehicles.

The other agencies mandated by law to decide on public road safety include the Land Transportation Office (LTO), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Department of Interior & Local Government (DILG), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Education (DepEd). These agencies don’t have direct laws or programs addressing sexual harassment in public transport as a criminal offense or a security concern for women.

Female Mobility in Jeepneys, Buses and Trains

Hannah, not her real name, is one of those who had to commute everyday from home to school through the railway transit. Arriving in one of the stations along Edsa, she felt a sudden touch from under her skirt just as the sliding door was about to open. By the time she looked back to see who held her from behind, the sudden rush of people exiting the door prevented her from identifying the culprit. She said she wanted to complain but didn’t even how or even who did it to her.

“My sexual space was violated,” Hannah objected. “Was it my fault for wearing a skirt,” she asked, “but then I realized that everyone can be sexually harassed regardless of what they’re wearing.” She said the experience had psychological consequences on her. To this day, she never knew who did it her. From then on, she hardly wore skirts anymore. She didn’t commute for weeks and never said a word to her family. She was afraid that her parents will only blame her for it because of the way she dressed.

“Sexual harassment can be an unwelcome touch, joke, or stare. It’s very subjective,” said Hannah.

This supports Herrera’s claims on the types of sexual harassments that happen in public vehicles. Her study showed that 43% out of 246 women in Metro Manila who were surveyed have been sexually harassed, usually in jeepneys, buses, and trains.

Act and React

Herrera recorded the most common instances of sexual advances and has been categorized in three types: physical, verbal, and visual contacts.

The physical sexual harassments include chancing or sexual opportunism, unwanted body contact, malicious touching of certain parts such as the breasts, thighs, hips and buttocks; pressing of male’s sex organ on the back of standing woman or on the shoulder of a sitting passenger near the aisle; prolonged hand contact when returning the fare; purposive contact on a woman’s thigh of the driver when adjusting the gear; pretending to be asleep with one’s head falls on another shoulder; using elbows to touch the side of the breasts; unwanted patting from the knees of passenger to the woman’s buttocks while alighting from the jeepney.

Whistling and sexist remarks may constitute verbal harassments. Meanwhile, smelling of hair ogling, winking, use of side mirrors to peek, and displaying visually obscene pictures are also considered as visual sexual harassments.

‘Tutok’ and ‘Chancing’

Two of the most common manners of harassment are guised as ‘accidents’ while in a moving or crowded vehicle. Mang Nel Santos, a jeepney driver for eight years in Quezon City says that some women in the front seat would sometimes give him long and hard stares whenever he would accidentally brush his hand on the leg or thigh of a passenger when he adjusts his gears. He claimed that he would aptly apologize because the space is too cramped and he never intended to offend the passenger.

“She might say that it’s ‘chancing’ but I would always apologize and explain that it’s the structure of the jeep itself and not my intention to do so,” he said in Filipino. He also said that he would ask the passenger to transfer adjust the seating position if she feels violated. Mang Nel said that so far, he has not heard any of his co-drivers in his route association being complained to the police about it. The Quezon City Police District Station 10 blotter that handles Mang Nel’s route from 2006-2007 confirmed this.

Even an employee of LRTA who had experienced a sexual harassment while on her way home to work didn’t complain to the public affairs section of LRTA. Salazar recounted that her female officemate was shocked when she realized that an offender had an erection pointed toward or ‘nakatutok’ behind her as the crowded train swayed to a forward motion. She screamed and called him to back-off. The offender quickly replied it was an accident and was humiliated. He ran away as the door to the next station opened. “After that, she reported it as a concern but not to PRO but to us, her officemates; her ‘tutok’ experience eventually became the butt of jokes among colleagues,” said Salazar in Filipino.

Rush Hour Excuses

The boxed train cars have their peak hours when most of the intended and unintended harassments take place. It is around six to eight o’clock in the morning as people go to work and school and late in the afternoon at five to six, when people go home said Herrera, which was confirmed by Salazar.

Salazar said that most people don’t report to the authorities anymore because they are rushing to work in the first place. “Will you waste your time to bring the offender to the police, if you have an eight o’clock job?” asked Salazar.

“There have been no cases filed at the Public Relations Office of LRTA which handles all cases regarding passenger causes,” explained Salazar, “sexual harassments happen inside the LRV [light rail vehicle] especially during the rush hours when it’s crowded.”

Female, children and senior passengers only

When the passenger segregation measure was implemented by the Metropolitan Railway Transit (MRT) and Light Railway Transit Authority (LRTA) in May 2006, Hannah started to commute via the light train again. This allowed only female, children and senior passengers in the first train and was seen as a welcome development for female commuters in the public electronic trains. No separation scheme is seen feasible yet in other public vehicles such as jeepneys and buses.

This trend to have segregated train cars for women, children, and senior citizens is also implemented in other Asian countries where the main forms of transport are subways and trains. Jeremiah Magoncia, a Filipino exchange student to Tokyo, Japan, observed that women, even in their most fashionable get-ups, are very weary about ‘Chikan’ or harassers. “The dress is not really the issue here, but of the offenders,” he said.

“Even if there are no visible guards in the train platforms, people look after each other. Some trains have push-buttons where women who were sexually harassed inside the train can alarm the whole carriage,” Magoncia explained. “Some ‘chikans’ were even punched black and blue by other concerned men in the train,” he added.

Meanwhile, the perpetuators in South Korea are called ‘chihan,’ with the slight difference of the term compared to Japanese counterparts where it is usually attributed to young boys who do it “for fun”. A Korean regular student studying in the University of the Philippines, Chiheon Park, says the crowded train is a “good escape for men who do it for the thrill”. This may well likely explain how harassers in any public transport might think of getting away because of anonymity in public areas.

Park noted that the main difference in Korean trains and Philippine trains is security. “In the Philippines, most people put their bags, even backpacks in front of them, probably to protect themselves from snatchers or unwanted touches,” he said.

Salazar said that when harassments happen, it should serve as a lesson to them. “So that next time, they know what they have to watch out for—either their bags or themselves.”

Passive or Active

Responses against sexual advances vary from one woman to another. Reactions may either be passive such as changing seats, leaving the jeep right away or stare at offender; or it may also be active when victims would snide sarcastic remarks or immediate retaliation such as slapping or use of object to hit the offender. Although reporting to the police or authorities is an option, very few women do so.

Herrera says that there is a need to amend RA 7877 to have permanent transport policies in place since the current law has failed to include this in scope. She recommended that protection against sexual harassment should also be included in the school curriculum and establishing women’s desks in public terminals and stations for complaints will bolster better protection for women.

Women are given protection against bosses and lecherous authorities in schools, and work places, but not while they are on the road as they go to school or work against the anonymous crowd. Herrera contends that an enabling law is required for this problem to be recognized through the amendment of the anti-sexual harassment act. ■