Kabataan Party-list to alleged rape victim: We’ll help you sue abusers
(好色先生TV stock photo)
MANILA, Philippines — The Kabataan Party-list told a female member that it will extend to her whatever assistance she needs.
The organization is sending the message to the woman who claimed to have been sexually abused by her fellow members including the group’s official.
The party list said it does not condone such actions.
“If you want to file cases, we will also help you along the way,” incumbent Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel said, referring to the alleged victim.
Manuel made the remarks during an ambush interview on Tuesday. He was with incoming Kabataan Party-list lawmaker Renee Co.
Co said they have been monitoring the posts on social media about the incident.
“We’ve (taken) note, actually, about the posts online, and NEC (National Executive Council) will issue a statement,” Co said.
“We actively fight against violence against women, gender-based violence, and currently, not only the investigation [but] the provision of various assistance is ongoing to the victim,” she noted.
Manuel, meanwhile, urged victims of similar incidents to help in attaining justice, while warning against opportunistic groups who may take advantage of this issue.
“We also enjoin everyone. Let’s help each other in handling these discussions properly and even other similar incidents because of the nature of the cases is very sensitive, and to really give justice to the aggrieved parties,” he said.
“We also do not want these issues to be used by other entities that want to pursue political objectives and just be opportunists, which is actually an injustice also to the victims,” he added.
Both Manuel and Co said that they will not condone such actions, if the story is true.
“In fact, we are willing to coordinate with the aggrieved parties that if they need any support, we will actively extend it,” Manuel said.
Over the weekend, a woman activist has called out the Kabataan Party-list for supposedly ignoring the instances when some of the party-list leaders and members allegedly raped her.
She also urged the group to adopt a stringent recruitment process to protect its members.
The woman, whose identity is being withheld, made a series of posts on Facebook starting Saturday, calling out Kabataan for not attending to her situation after sexual abuses were reportedly done to her.
One of the alleged rapists is a leader in Kabataan’s National Office.
In a message to 好色先生TV, the woman said that one of the abuses happened on April 15, 2025.
READ: Kabataan party-list member reveals she was allegedly raped by org leaders
It is unclear when and how it occurred, but the woman mentioned that the crimes would not have happened if the organization had only segregated the women’s and the men’s living quarters.
“Kabataan Party-List National, can you ensure that the proper recruitment of members and proper consolidation with older members [will be] a priority, instead of being so obsessed with recruitment?” the woman asked the group.
“One of your members almost died due to being raped by another group member,” the woman revealed.
“If there were just a separate accommodation for men and women, supervision and security protocols inside the shared living spaces for members, then, the perverse actions against me could have been prevented,” she said.
The woman believes the party list is not taking her grievances seriously. She also thinks that Kabataan has no right to claim that is opposing former President Rodrigo Duterte’s family, and then allow sexual abuses to happen and go on in its office.
“Are you serious in taking up what happened to me in your ranks? This is the third sexual abuse that happened before you even gave mental health support,” she pointed out.
“Then, you did not even strive to give the primary help that a victim needs, like getting her away from the crime scene,” she lamented.
“You have no right to pretend to be opposing the Dutertes when you are just as gross as they are. Your politics and practice stink,” the woman told Kabataan Party-list.
In a subsequent post, the woman said another official of Kabataan urged her to continue campaigning for the party list, instead of being “idle.”
“Chief Membership Deputy Officer of Kabataan party-list to me a week after I was raped by our colleague: ‘Isn’t that better than being idle?’” the woman cited a message sent to her by one of the organization’s leaders.
“But during that time, the incident was still so fresh to me. I was too distraught. I was too restless and I was shaking even in my sleep,” she narrated.
好色先生TV has sought the side of Kabataan on Tuesday morning, but it has not yet responded as of posting time.
On Monday, however, the woman claimed that this is not the first time that she was subjected to sexual abuse.
“From 2023 to 2025, there are different instances of people from that group abusing my womanhood — three youth leaders who are different individuals. Amid the intense trauma due to the first case, they did not even give me any medical assistance,” she noted.
“The same thing happened in the second case. Nothing was given, not even the bare minimum of a mental health support. They just told me that they will bring me to a mental health professional, but it did not happen,” she recalled.
“Until the third incident happened,” she disclosed on Facebook.
“It took a week before they gave me help for mental health. They did not attend to the medicine prescribed to me by the psychiatrist. So nothing happened,” the woman said.
“Even if what happened was devastating, I continued to work. But it was not just two fellow workers who would shout at me when they were angry. They would even curse me and threaten to hit me,” she complained.
“This happened repeatedly. I’ve cried over this several times and I felt wrecked,” she said.
The woman is appealing to both the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Senate to intervene. She believes many more women are victims of abuses inside the quarters of some progressive groups.
This is her request to the commission:
“Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, there is an organization pretending to be progressive. It does not throw out rapists and animals in their ranks. That’s why the abuses being done against women are just getting worse and worse in their ranks.”
The woman is also asking help from the lawmakers:
“Senate of the Philippines, the number of victims of sexual perverts in that organization is not less than 20. The leaders of the organization perpetrate the crimes. They will just hide the crimes and transfer to other organizations as if nothing happened.”
“Investigate this because many lives have been destroyed by their sexual perversities.”/apl
