‘Phl making progress in fight vs human trafficking’

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is making some progress in the fight against human trafficking, but much more needs to be done, Philippine Ambassador to Poland Patricia Ann Paez said yesterday.

Paez said the Philippines is mainly a point of origin for human trafficking and other countries serve as transit or destination points for the people being trafficked.

She said human trafficking is a transnational problem that requires transnational solutions and concerted global action.

“The Philippines has partnered with as many countries as we could in the war against human trafficking,” Paez said.

“Trafficking in persons poses a big challenge to the Philippines, as it does to countries which send a big number of overseas workers,” Paez said in an interview on Polish TV2 morning program “Pytanie Na Sniadnie.”

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that one million Filipino men and women migrate overseas for work opportunities and about 60 to 70 percent of them are women who are easy prey for international crime syndicates such as those engaged in human trafficking.

“We have taken steps to combat this form of modern-day slavery on three fronts: prevention, protection, and prosecution,” she said.

In 2003, the Philippines enacted into law the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, which metes out severe penalties to those convicted of human trafficking, and allocated $550,000 to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking and created at least four regional task forces in the country’s human trafficking hotspots.

These are composite teams of law enforcers, prosecutors, social welfare officers, and representatives of non-government organizations operating on a 24/7 basis.

In the area of protection, the government alone operates at least 24 halfway houses or temporary sanctuaries for victims of human trafficking.

“We have also negotiated bilateral agreements with many countries to ensure that Filipino workers are not subjected to servitude and other forms of exploitation. In terms of prosecution, we have convicted at least 25 major human traffickers,” Paez said.

The ambassador noted that the situation of women in the Philippines is good if not better than in most countries. The Philippines ranked eighth out of 135 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum.

“This did not come as a total surprise to us. We have a long tradition of women power. Way back in 1937, the Philippines was the first republic in Asia which gave Filipino women the right to vote and to run for public office, on the same terms as men,” she said.

Since 1995, all government agencies have been required to allocate five percent of their budgets to gender and development initiatives.