ABSTRACT
Family members must be allowed the opportunity to discover how best to support and nurture each other with the least interference and external rules. The 1987 Philippine Constitution recognizes “the sanctity of family life” and imposes upon the State the duty to “protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution” (Article II, Section 12). It has been argued that to trammel the family’s autonomy and disregard its privacy, in even the smallest measure, would permit the State to unnecessarily wield authority over it. Though relationships among family members are, by and large, a private matter, this standard has been used to reinforce the erroneous belief that all events that transpire within the family should be dealt with exclusively in the privacy of one’s home. Consequently, incidents of domestic violence, which are not a recent phenomenon nor are they isolated occurrences, have been shielded from State intervention and public scrutiny. A narrow reading of the doctrine of family privacy imposes an inflexible rule that ignores the reality that some homes have ceased to be havens and that a person whose rights are violated by a member of his or her family needs State protection as much as any individual.
