Philippine gov't urged to step up anti-human trafficking efforts

December 16, 2004

Manila - The United States Wednesday urged the Philippine government to exert more efforts in the fight against human trafficking.

US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone stressed that "more work" should be done by the Philippine government although the Arroyo administration has made progress to eliminate human trafficking.

"There is so much more to go," he told reporters during the turnover ceremony of a 227,000-US-dollar grant from the US government to a non-governmental organization which helps people suffering from injustice and oppression, the International JusticeMission (IJM), to help prosecute cases of human trafficking.

According to a US report released in June, the Philippines is a"source, transit and destination country" for persons trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor.

The Philippines was placed on Tier 2 Watch List due to the government's "failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts tocombat severe forms of trafficking, particularly in terms of its weak implementation of the anti-trafficking law and a lack of progress in law enforcement," the report said.

However, Ricciardone said that the significant progress made bythe Arroyo administration against the problem is not enough for the Philippines to be removed from a US watch list of countries that have not fully complied with minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking.

"I suppose there's possibility, but what matters is the qualitative assessment of progress and that will be verbal... and I'm sure whatever words Washington comes up with will be based on report from here," he said.

IJM Executive Director Patty Sison-Arroyo said that there is anincreasing number of children in the Philippines who succumb to trafficking and who are exploited in prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation.

"The estimated number is about 60,000 to 75,000 children who are prostituted within the country. This does not reflect childrenprostituted outside the Philippines," he said.

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