Vicky Ann Alert formed to fight domestic abuse

Family and friends of the late Vicky Ann Igitol have formed a group called “Vicky Ann Alert” in their desire to prevent domestic abuses in the CNMI.

Igitol recently passed away after suffering from serious injuries allegedly inflicted by her partner.

Florence Kirby, director of the CNMI Youth Affairs, said that part of the 3rd annual Youth Month activities is a candlelight ceremony at 6pm at the 13 Fishermen’s Park on Beach Road for Vicky Ann.

Igitol, she said, used to work in the Tanapag Youth Center. “She [was] one of my staff,” said Kirby.

She said the Vicky Ann Alert is a community-based program aimed to complement the CNMI Domestic Abuse Prevention Task Force.

“If we have this Alert, together with the task force, the effort is twice as great to save some lives,” she said.

Kirby said several women have already expressed interest in joining the Vicky Ann Alert. The mechanisms of the alert have yet to be worked out but is apparently patterned after the U.S. mainland’s Amber Alert, a community- and media-based method of tracking down missing children.

Gov. Juan N. Babauta, who signed a proclamation declaring October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, said that the death of two women this year due to domestic abuse proves that the problem remains prevalent in the community.

Kirby said there were three other deaths this year that are undocumented. She said one had died of miscarriage resulting from domestic violence.

“There are disappearances too,” she said.

The CNMI reportedly recorded the highest number of incidence of domestic abuse in 1999, totaling 945.

Babauta on Thursday called on men to stand up against domestic violence as he signed the proclamation.

“We are asking men to take a stand against domestic violence. Men can communicate with each other that domestic violence is not acceptable, that it is a crime, and that we’d had enough,” he said in his remarks.

This year’s awareness month theme is “Enough! Domestic Violence R.I.P.”

“Because this violence usually takes place in private, many of us may not realize how widespread it is. During the month of October, we should all contemplate the scars that domestic violence leaves on our society and what each of us can do to prevent it,” the governor said.

He said that men, in particular, “can work together to reduce the pain, reduce the suffering in our families, and reduce the patterns of behavior that lead to domestic violence.”

“The Commonwealth will not tolerate abusers. That’s the bottom line,” he said, citing that a newly enacted domestic violence law provides for a mandatory jail term for convicted abusers.

Acts of domestic violence also include stalking, unlawful contact, interference with attempts to report domestic violence crimes, and violating orders of protections.

The stalking portion of the bill criminalizes the non-consensual contact with a person, including unwanted phone calls, showing up at the victim’s place or work uninvited, with the intent to intimidate or harass the victim.