Taguig opens rehab facility for human trafficking victims

MANILA, Philippines - As part of its share in the global fight against human trafficking, the Taguig City government has opened a facility to help rehabilitate victims of human trafficking and exploitation.

Called the “Reintegration Support Network (RSN) center,” the facility is located in Taguig’s Barangay Western Bicutan.

Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano opened the center on Thursday along with representatives from the city’s Gender and Development Focal Point System (GDFPS) and the US-based human rights organization International Justice Mission (IJM).

“Our partnership with the International Justice Mission is a significant step toward our goal in fighting human trafficking and exploitation in the City of Taguig,” Mayor Cayetano said.

“It makes us happy to know that now, not only we are in a position to help save them from this unacceptable situation but also help them reintegrate to their communities with confidence and high hopes for their future,” she added.

Human trafficking and exploitation especially cases in which violence is involved has been regarded as a crime by the United Nations, which has defined trafficking in persons as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, 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 a position of vulnerability or of 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, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of human organs.

Cayetano said the Taguig City government signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the IJM last June 30 with the commitment to train personnel who will be tasked to supervise the various support groups created to handle human trafficking cases and help victims of exploitation.

The IJM has been active in the fight against human trafficking including the commercial sexual exploitation of children, forced labor, slavery, illegal detention, police brutality and illegal land seizure.

Mayor Cayetano said part of the program is to provide a wide variety of services designed to bring healing and rehabilitation in order to successfully reintegrate the survivors to their home communities.

The RSN center, she added, is equipped to provide trauma-informed care, psycho-social therapy, access to medical care, and educational assistance.

“This will be a continuous advocacy of the city and we are doing this to protect our citizens from the harm that is brought by human trafficking and exploitations,” Mayor Cayetano said.