Whoever wins the May presidential polls should make stopping rape and all kinds of violence against women a national priority.

Official reports paint a disturbing picture. A woman or a child is raped every 50 minutes.

Last year, rape cases reported to the police and other law enforcement agencies reached 10,298, up from 9,887 in 2014.

The real number could be higher as many assaults go unreported.

The larger picture which depicts a rising trend in violence committed against women and children is what is more disturbing.

In 2014, the PNP reported 40,220 Violence Against Women (VAW) incidents and 38,269 cases of abuse inflicted on children.

Combined, 78,489 is the sum of our fears of a widespread malady that must be stopped. Every six minutes, a child or a woman is being hurt somewhere.

We can start by filling the almost 25,000 vacant positions in the PNP roster. Once filled, it will add 16 new policemen to every town in the country.

Let us also make sure that every station has a Women’s and Children’s Desk. This can be done by earmarking and reserving for women a certain percentage of the number of police officers to be hired in a year.

We should also include in crime reporting, cases of violence committed against LGBTs as this is an underreported segment in collating crime statistics.

If we know the depth and dimension of hate crimes, the more we are equipped to offer protection.