GENDER OMBUD REPORT 2016 12 • In Region IX, a woman witnessed the killing of her brother, a drug suspect. The woman had shouted,“naa koy mga anak diri!” [I have children here!] when they realized what was happening. The victim’s live-in partner also reported that during the incident, she was ordered to go inside a room and that a police officer attempted to molest her. The woman resisted and shouted, “sige sir, pwede kitang kasuhan ng ganyan!” [Go ahead, I can file charges against you!] The family also denied that the victim was armed and that he fought back during the incident. • A 10-year-old girl in Iligan City was watching TV with her uncle and aunt when two men wearing black clothes and bonnets barged into their house. The men told the girl to lie face down on the floor “hapa lang ‘day.” [Just stay down, kid.] She saw how her uncle and aunt were taken out of the house; soon after, she heard gunshots. Out of fear, she stayed on the floor until the SOCO team arrived. She later learned that her relatives had been killed. Reports from the Commission’s regional offices show that families left behind – often the wives, live-in partners, children, or mothers of victims – suffer from trauma, fear, and other psychological problems. Many of the reports cite family members saying that they were greatly affected because they saw their loved ones dragged away or killed. Hearing of the death, going to funeral homes to identify the bodies of their loved ones, or not knowing what happened after their family member was taken away also caused trauma. Perceiving the community and the legal justice system as unsupportive and even hostile and threatening is another conern. In Region I, a family reported sleepless nights, periods of anxiety, and fear for their lives when a member was killed in the drug war. A mother reported that an unfamiliar van had been going around the vicinity of their house after the death of her daughter; the idea that the family was being monitored by the same people who killed her daughter caused extreme stress and fear among them. In many cases, people who had witnessed the killings refused to testify because of lack of trust in the legal system. The economic impact of the killings on women left behind has yet to be looked into. The CHR’s Protection Office reported that the victims of the government’s war on drugs were primarily from low socio-economic classes, and most likely to be the breadwinner of their families. The women, live-in partners, mothers, and children are often left with no livelihood or other means to support themselves. Caring responsibilities in their household, financial stress, securing the family’s safety and welfare, and accessing justice for the killing, are among the women’s burden in the context of the government’s war on drugs.