Of the 560 who reported to have been sexually harassed, majority (58 per cent) were offended in the workplace and 29 percent during training. About 63 percent of them reported they were harassed by their superiors and around 27 percent by their colleagues.
About 60 percent of those sexually harassed reported they were harassed as a pre-condition to entry to the PNP and also in exchange for promotion or other benefits.
There are 9,000 policewomen in the country or 8 percent of the country's total police force. More than half of those surveyed, at least 1,750 or 55 percent are married to a police officer.
Around 14 per cent or 280 of the surveyed policewomen reported having experienced abuse by their partners for more than 10 years; around 23 percent in the last five to 10 years; 25 percent in the last two to four years while nearly half – around 38 per cent, suffered abuse within the year.
Twenty four per cent cited jealousy as reason for the abuse, Osano said.
Other reasons include philandering husbands, work-related issues, arguments, money-related, problems with in-laws, and husbands' vices.
Sixty-five per cent of the policewomen said they were not aware of a male officer beating his wife or partner while 35 percent said they were.
The incidence of abuse of women law enforces, however, went unreported.
Osano said a fourth of the policewomen said they did not report the incident because they were thinking of their children's future. Nearly the same number or 24% said they were afraid of humiliation. Around 20 percent said they anticipated more family problems if they reported the incidents while around 12 per cent would rather suffer in silence.
Around 9 per cent said they hoped their partners will not harass them again and another 9 per cent said they believed nobody would pay attention to their plight.
About 8 percent of the women law enforcers who were surveyed admitted they were not aware of laws on the protection of women.
Osano presented figures that policewomen are also victims of discrimination inside the police force with 27 percent of them saying they were discriminated because of their pregnancy. About 77 percent of those surveyed also reported that they were made to perform multiple tasks that other personnel could do.
Seventy seven percent of those surveyed said they experienced adverse reactions when talking with men in the police force about gender sensitivity.
But 45 percent of those surveyed said they joined the PNP because they really wanted to become police officers. About 39 percent said they wanted to earn professionally and 10 percent said they took the job because it runs in the family. Only 4 percent said they took it because there were no other jobs to apply for. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)