US urges RP to jail more human traffickers

The United States urged the Philippines yesterday to take more positive action to throw human traffickers in jail so it can be removed from a US watchlist of countries that aren’t doing enough to fight modern-day slavery.

Ambassador John Miller, director of the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said he hopes the first conviction yesterday of two human traffickers in Zamboanga City is a sign that the Philippines will do more to combat the scourge.

"I hope the Philippines will do good things and will rise above Tier 2 (on the) watchlist," Miller told a press conference at the end of a four-day visit. "I hope that the conviction in Zamboanga is a sign of good things to come."

Miller, also senior adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on human trafficking, said while the Philippines has a good anti-trafficking law, and a good structure to pursue traffickers, it needs to improve law enforcement.

"No trafficker, until yesterday, has been sent to jail," he added. "I hope the skepticism that I heard from NGOs will be answered with positive action."

The Philippines has been asking Washington to remove it from Tier 2 on the watchlist, which is issued every June 1. The US ranked the Philippines at Tier 2 this year, saying the country had failed "to show evidence of increasing efforts to convict traffickers."

Countries on the list which refuse to take strong steps to battle traffickers could fall into a lower category — Tier 3 — that would expose them to possible restrictions in US government assistance.

Miller said he could not yet say whether the Philippines will improve its ranking on the list by the time the new report comes out next year, saying it would depend on whether officials take action as promised.

As many as 800,000 people are brought and sold across national borders annually or lured to other countries with false promises of work or other benefits, the State Department said in its annual survey of international human trafficking.

Most are women and children who end up as sex slaves. — AP, Rainier Allan Ronda