Gov't council to address human trafficking

President Estrada has created an executive council to help curb human trafficking, particularly that of women and children, that has grown into an $8-billion industry run by international crime syndicates.

"There is a need for a body that will ensure an integrated approach for the review, consideration, approval, management and monitoring of bilateral, regional and multilateral initiatives to suppress trafficking," says Executive Order No. 220 which created the council.

The foreign affairs secretary and the interior secretary will co-chair the body, with the secretaries of justice, defense, labor, social welfare, tourism and the executive secretary as members.

It will be supported by a technical coordinating committee, to be composed of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, Philippine Center on Transnational Crime, National Police Commission, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Commission on Filipinos Overseas, National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Commission on Human Rights and National Anti-Poverty Commission.

As the council's secretariat, the technical committee will coordinate with non-government organizations, the business sector, academe and other interest groups in formulating and implementing policies.

The executive council will then assist the President in coming up with comprehensive measures curbing human trafficking ranging from prevention, prosecution of those found guilty, rehabilitation of victims and international cooperation.

The council will initially get a P5-million budget from the Presidential Contingency Fund.

The council's creation came after the Philippines was reported recently as the world's largest migrant nation, with 5.5 million Filipinos working abroad. In many cases, victims of human trafficking return home physically and emotionally brutalized.

"Or they come dead," Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon had said previously.

More than a million women and children are bought and sold around the world yearly in modern-day slavery so lucrative and fast-growing that it competes with trafficking in firearms and illegal drugs.

As a founding member of the United Nations, the Philippines has actively participated in global efforts to curb human trafficking, particularly the UN resolutions on the traffic of women and girls.

The Philippines and the United States recently co-hosted the Asian Regional Initiative Against Trafficking international forum in Pasay City.