Philippines: Dreams turn into nightmare
By Radzini Oledan
August 30, 2004
Ella, 20, was just barely 14 years old when a neighbor recruited and offered
her family the opportunity to earn more. With the approval of her parents, Ella
along with other kids her age went to Manila en route to Japan where she worked
as an entertainer.
There are other Ellas out there.
Nameless faces, all in their youth, girl children who are lured with brighter
opportunities, forced by the economic realities and hardships of their own
families. Armed with a dream, which turned into a nightmare.
Trafficking across borders is a flourishing trade. The number of Filipinos
living and working overseas have already reached 7.41M (as of December 2001)
and 1.6M of them, mostly irregular migrants, are suspected to be victims of
trafficking or smuggling, according to the Consortium Against Trafficking of
Children and Women in Sexual Exploitation (Catchwise).
Ma. Gala M. Enerio, advocacy officer of the End Child Prostitution, Child
Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (Ecpat) said
more girls and young women are becoming victims of sex trafficking.
Children as young as 12 years old has been prostituted. "They often leave their
homes and families with the promise of a good paying, decent jobs," Enerio
said. Worse, most of them have the approval of their parents to leave home and
work with the hope that they could help put food on their own table.
However, there are those who are enticed, coerced or even abducted to move or
there are cases when girl children escape abuse or seek better life and end up
as victims of sex trafficking.
The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations
Convention on Transnational Organized Crime defines trafficking in persons as
the recruitment, transportation, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of
the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion of abduction, of fraud,
of deception, of the abuse of power or of position of vulnerability or the
giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person
having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation, shall include, at a minimum, prostitution and other forms of
sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to
slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
Sex trafficking involves the geographical transfer of a person within and
across borders for the purpose of engaging such persons in sexual exploitation.
Ecpat has identified Cebu City, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, Davao, Butuan, Cagayan de
Oro as the priority areas in their monitoring and advocacy campaign against
women and child trafficking.
In Davao City, the pro-active approach employed by the city government and its
child and women friendly policies such as the City's Children Welfare Code and
the Davao City Women's Development Code, have effectively curbed the
trafficking of women and children.
Social workers have been deployed in the ports of entry in Davao City such as
the seaport, airport and land transport to address illegal recruitment among
children and preventing them to travel alone without any travel documents.
Yet, there are still instances when trafficking exists especially since
policies in other areas in Mindanao are not as pro-active in curbing
trafficking.
Enerio cited the 'intricate' syndicate of sex trafficking. Syndicates, she
said, are highly organized from the means of transportation, to the casa and
bars to police. "They do not work in their place of origin and if they do, they
use dummies and oftentimes, there is police protection," she added.
Visayas and Mindanao have been the local trafficking routes. In Mindanao, Ecpat
has identified Davao del Sur/Norte, Agusan del Norte, Pagadian City, General
Santos, Zamboanga, Dumaguete and Sultan Kudarat as routes for local
trafficking.
Some of these women and children are trafficked abroad in Northern Mariana
Islands, Japan and the Middle East.
Enerio said traffickers who recruit girls for the purpose of sexual
exploitation were identified as white slavery syndicates, foreign gangs
composed of Australian, Americans and British who allegedly earn US$100 million
a month.
According to a 1989 study conducted by the group, Japanese, German and
Australian criminal groups control most of the sex industry in Manila while the
Americans controlled Subic and Olongapo. The Japanese are dominating the
tourist areas of Cebu and Marinduque while there is a growing Korean market
frequenting Cagayan de Oro and Boracay.
And while people assume that trafficking happens from rural to urban areas,
there are reports that rebut the assumption. Documented cases show that even
women and children from urban areas can be trafficked to rural areas for
purposes of prostitution.
Enerio said victims of sex trafficking often end up in nightclubs and KTV bars
as GROs, or sexy dancers in nightclubs. One customer who wants to take them out
pays P6,000?P2,000 of which goes to the owner, P2,500 goes to the manager and
the remaining P1,500 as her pay which is use by the family to tide through the
daily necessities.
Sex trafficking has become a complex problem with serious impact to the society
and the victim. "It has become rampant especially with the hard times, more
families have been led to believe that the only way out from poverty is sending
their children in other areas of the country or even overseas as entertainers,"
Enerio added.
Enerio cited the demand in the urbanized cities for domestic workers and for
children in prostitution, demand created by information technology/ Internet
for bride sale, demand for child laborers because they are cheaper and non
problematic in terms of asserting rights as workers, demand for sexual services
created by the presence of military servicemen as among the factors, which
encourages the business.
While prostitution is illegal in the Philippines, different standards apply to
women and children, Enerio said.
For instance, women victims of prostitution are considered vagrants under the
Revised Penal Code and are considered as criminals engaged in illegal
activities. "They are stigmatized by society and labeled as criminals," she
added.
Children, on the other hand, who are trafficked into prostitution, are
considered as victims. They are protected under RA 7610 against prosecution for
prostitution. However, these children are instructed to falsify their age and
claim that they are adults to escape from being caught by law enforcers.
Silent as it may seem, the problem has considerably grown and have become
rampant over the years. It is only through the consolidated effort and
vigilance of civil society groups and government agencies that the suffering of
countless women and children victims will end.
Undeniably, the problem persists. There are lots of Ellas out there.
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