When the "Revolution" Ignores the Rape: Kabataan Partylist and the cruelty of empty words

In March 2024, Kabataan Partylist released a statement boldly titled “Official Statement Addressing Incidents of Gender-Based Violence: Navigating the Way Forward Amid Errors and Lapses.” It claimed solidarity with “millions of women, children and victim-survivors from all walks of life” in ending gender-based violence (GBV), and made sweeping declarations about colonial roots, capitalist patriarchy, and—because it was fashionable at the time—the sins of Quiboloy, former president Duterte and incumbent president Marcos Jr.

What it did not say—what it chose not to say—is that by then, Kabataan Partylist was already aware that at least two sexual assaults had occurred within its own ranks. A third would follow in 2025.

This isn’t just a case of hypocrisy. This is strategic erasure masquerading as progressive rhetoric. While one of their most dedicated organizers was reeling from repeated sexual abuse by three different leaders from 2023 to 2025, Kabataan issued lofty proclamations like:

    “We must pay serious attention in addressing such an issue within our own ranks as well. We need to deal with the disturbing reality that gender-based violence can also happen in youth organizations in our country, and this should never be condoned.”

But it was condoned. It was dismissed, deflected, delayed. The survivor, Karima, has gone public with harrowing details: no timely mental health support, no medication after psychiatric referral, and a leadership that offered nothing but token gestures and empty meetings. Even more chilling, a top officer, despite knowing about the incident, told her to continue campaigning for the partylist a week after the third assault: “Isn’t that better than staying idle?” Read: Get over yourself, and quit being lazy. 

Kabataan's 2024 statement is rich in historical critique. It denounces Spanish-era patriarchy, U.S. neocolonialism, and capitalism’s commodification of women. But nowhere does it acknowledge that there are predators in their ranks. Nowhere does it outline how many complaints had already reached them. Nowhere does it apologize for failing the survivor who trusted them with her body, her principles, and her life.

Instead, it retreats to abstraction:

    “Improving our processes to better handle cases of gender-based violence is only necessary; this includes reflecting in our policies the mechanisms for support and community-building for victims.”

Reflecting. In policies. While a member was breaking down in real time.

They even apologized—for the wrong thing. The only concrete admission of failure in the statement is this:

    “We regret that our weakness in oversight related to a previous hearing in Congress, among other things, inadvertently exhibited insensitivity towards victims of abuse.”

Not for the abuse itself. Not for neglecting a raped comrade. But for a bad showing at a hearing. Optics. In the end, it is all about optics.

This is not merely tone-deaf—it is violent. It is the kind of political gaslighting that tells survivors, we believe women, but only when convenient; we condemn abuse, but only when committed by the government officials, the AFP or the PNP—not by our own comrades in shared housing.

What happened to Karima is not isolated. It is a consequence of a political culture that mistakes internal handling for justice, silence for solidarity, and revolutionary discipline for re-victimization. She has since left the organization, emotionally shattered but ready to fight.

Kabataan's March 2024 statement ends with a flourish:

    “We remain committed to ensuring the implementation of pro-women laws which we authored with fellow advocates in Congress.”

But laws mean nothing when you can't protect your own members. Slogans are hollow when your shelters enable predators. And youth representation is a lie when the youth you claim to represent are raped in your name and left to pick up the pieces alone.

Until Kabataan Partylist confronts its own complicity with honesty, not press releases—its GBV statements will be remembered not as commitments to change, but as monuments to cowardice.