Short answer. No. RA 9262, Section 43 protects you expressly: an employer who prejudices any person for assisting a co-employee who is a victim under the Act is liable for discrimination. The same section gives the victim herself a paid leave of up to ten days, extendible as specified in the protection order.
What the law says
an employer who shall prejudice any person for assisting a co-employee who is a victim under this Act shall likewise be liable for discrimination.
RA 9262, Section 43 — Paid Leave For Victims. Read the full provision →
The law protects the helper, not only the victim
The Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act does not stop at protecting the abused employee. Section 43 closes with a sentence aimed squarely at your situation: an employer who shall prejudice any person for assisting a co-employee who is a victim under this Act shall likewise be liable for discrimination. The wording is broad on both ends. Any person covers you as a colleague, and prejudice is not limited to dismissal — adverse treatment visited on you because you helped is what the provision targets. Punishing the office mate who accompanied a victim, covered her duties, or corroborated her account is exactly what the clause forbids.
The victim's own right: ten days of paid leave
The protection for helpers sits inside a section built around the victim's leave entitlement. Victims under the Act shall be entitled to take a paid leave of absence up to ten (10) days in addition to other paid leaves under the Labor Code and Civil Service Rules and Regulations, extendible when the necessity arises as specified in the protection order. Three features stand out: the leave is paid, it is on top of ordinary leave credits rather than deducted from them, and it can stretch beyond ten days where a protection order says the necessity requires it. Helping a co-worker often means helping her claim precisely this.
Employers answer under the law on both counts
Section 43 attaches consequences to the employer in both directions. As to the victim's leave, any employer who shall prejudice the right of the person under this section shall be penalized in accordance with the provisions of the Labor Code and Civil Service Rules and Regulations — a formula that reaches private employers and government offices alike. As to you, the helper, the employer shall likewise be liable for discrimination. An employer therefore cannot lawfully treat the victim's absence as a disciplinary matter, and cannot redirect its displeasure at the colleague who assisted her instead.
If you have already been penalised
Preserve the paper trail. Keep the memorandum, notice or evaluation that embodies the punishment, and anything that ties it to your act of helping — dates are usually the giveaway, when the sanction lands soon after the assistance. Note concretely what help you gave: accompanying her to report, covering shifts during her leave, giving a statement. Since the protection turns on the co-worker being a victim under this Act, the existence of a protection order or a pending complaint strengthens the link. With those documents in hand, a lawyer can assess whether what happened to you is the discrimination the section makes the employer liable for.