In a small stall in the middle of a party place in a suburb of the Philippine capital, a group of women keep their pain in silence amid the music and conversation fueled by alcohol, coffee, and cigarette smoke.
Agnes, 39, was nine months pregnant when she and her six children woke up to the noise of the police barging into their gate, tearing down the walls of their hut in the poor district of Payatas.
The police claimed they were looking for something inside the poor woman’s dwelling. They then dragged Agnes out, leaving her children wailing for their “mama.”
“They destroyed the gate and broke the walls of our house. They said they were looking for something, but they found nothing. Still the police arrested me,” a teary-eyed Agnes said.
“They ‘planted’ drugs and money on me, but I did not have that kind of cash. I didn’t even have 50 pesos (about a dollar),” she said.
