Girl Gangs of Davao
A story about the rough life of girls in Philipino gangs, from the zReportage news site in January 2007, contained an interesting reference to their initiation process:
Davao’s gangs usually start out as cliques in school where they are called barkadas. They become more territorial once their members drop out of class, and eventually function as families for girls bound together by similar experiences of abuse and an adolescent desire for independence…
Most girls get sucked into gangs simply because they have boyfriends who are established members. In many of the city’s mixed gangs, the guys call the shots. They decide the date for parties, how much money everyone should chip in for alcohol, and who to send to the frontline during riots, says Taba, a founding leader of Hostage. For the most part, boys use girls to attract new members. “The girls are here pretty much for our pleasure,” Taba adds…
Tina heard about Hostage from a neighbor soon after the group’s establishment in 2000. Although it already controlled much of Boulevard’s Piapi market area in Barangay 22, the gang wanted to expand its 40-strong membership. “They need sisters,” Tina’s neighbor had told her. “Sisters” or “wives” were euphemisms for girlfriends. So she joined, and became Hostage secretary as well as Jun-jun’s girlfriend. Being part of the first batch of members and having a Hostage boyfriend also exempted her from undergoing the gang’s belt-whipping initiation ritual…
Survival sex is widely practiced in gangs. They are where girls first learn how to indulge their adolescent concepts of love. And sexual intercourse, if it comes to that, is not necessarily consensual. Male gang members often manipulate girls and convince them to use their bodies as bargaining chips for protection or other necessities like food and cigarettes. Pure physical contact, whether or not it involves violence or an exchange of goods or cash, is equated with emotional love…. Guasa estimates that more than half of the 875 girls whom Tambayan has assisted experienced their first sexual encounter as a result of force.
