Under Republic Act No. 9262, otherwise known as the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 (“VAWC”), the concept of “violence” against women and children includes not just physical violence, but also sexual violence, psychological violence, and economic abuse, including threats of such acts, battery, assault, coercion, harassment, or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.[1] The law penalizes any act or a series of acts “committed by any person against a woman who is his wife, former wife, or against a woman with whom the person has or had a sexual or dating relationship, or with whom he has a common child, or against her child whether legitimate or illegitimate, within or without the family abode.”
