Only this week a disc jockey, reading from a sophisticated international magazine, announced over the radio, as if it were the Gospel truth: "The finest prostitutes in all the world are the Filipinas. They are the most beautiful, the least expensive, and they are game for anything!"
In Manila there is a flyer, which comes to you by telefax, presenting "Hundreds of Amateur Webcam girls! ! !" They not only portray pornography on the internet, they advertise it:
"Choose an amateur webcam girl from hundreds of live show hosts for steamy, private adult sex shows. These amateur webcams and video chat rooms are totally uncensored to provide you with pure raw enjoyment and satisfaction. Advanced adult cam technology will amaze you as our horny amateur webcam girls, boys and in-between will do just about anything to please you!"
There follows actual pictures of "Girl, Alone", "Girl on Girl (Lesbian)", "Girl and Guy". The final exhortation is: "So choose one and get off now!"
Pornography is bad enough. But it is now being advertised, brazenly, by multi-media! And it has been made available to everyone, even to our children.
Sex trafficking has become an industry. Girls as young as 12, 13 and 14 are picked up from poor families in the provinces, with the promise that they will be hired as maids in wealthy homes. They are brought to the big city, raped, and then forced into prostitution.
The Filipina girl, because of her natural modesty, is ashamed even to speak of what is happening to her. When money is given to her, she sends whatever she can spare to her parents in the province, explaining that it is her salary as a maid.
Prostitution, like the poor, has always been with us, but now it has become an epidemic in Asia. Objective, credible, trained researchers present the facts:
30 million women and children in Asia have been trafficked for sexual exploitation in its varied forms: for brothel, bar and street prostitution; for military rest and recreation; for sex tourism; for the bride trade; and for pornography.
This sale of human beings is facilitated by organized crime syndicates, and by corrupt government officials.
The sex industry is integrated into the mainstream economic sectors, such as "adult entertainment."
Trafficking earns billions of dollars, at the expense of wounded women and children.
The United Nations estimates that trafficking in persons earns 5 to 7 billion dollars, each year.
New information technologies facilitate the global marketing of women and children, without threat of arrest or prosecution.
Trafficked women are considered migration criminals, instead of trafficking victims.
Due to unemployment in the Philippines, many are lured to accept jobs which do not exist. All 73 Philippine embassies and consulates record trafficking for prostitution, illegal labor, and the bride trade.
One Melbourne sex trafficker brought 40 women to Victoria as "contract workers". He deprived them of their passports and earnings until their contracts were worked off. The women had to have sex with 500 men before receiving any money.
In the Philippines, an estimated 300,000 women and around 50,000 children are in prostitution.
In Japan, over 150,000 non-Japanese women are in prostitution, mostly Thai and Filipina.
But, to the great credit of Japan, they are trying to check the influx of prostitutes. A Japanese commission came to the Philippines. Their whole purpose was to stop the migration of Filipina prostitutes into Japan.
The legalization of the industry of prostitution in Australia increased the trafficking of women from the Philippines.
The trafficking system is geared to make money for the organizers. A Filipina girl, 14 years old, educational attainment, Grade 4, a virgin when she was taken from her home in the province, is now trapped as a sexy dancer in an expensive night club. The customer who takes her out pays P6000…. P2000 goes to the bar owner. P2,500 goes to her manager. She receives P1,500. The money supports her father, her mother, and her seven sisters and brothers. She will earn less and less, as she grows older.
On the positive side, the Prime Minister of Korea has proclaimed his determination to fight trafficking of women. In September of 2004 Korea started to seize the entire earnings of business owners who are found to have arranged these illegal transactions.
The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia –SUHAKAM – is doing its best to curb the trafficking of women and children…. The United Nations has a Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children…. USAID is funding a number of NGOs in a campaign to "Stop Human Trafficking."
The Philippines enacted an anti-trafficking law in the Year 2003 that severely penalizes perpetrators, including buyers, while protecting the victims. And the rank and file of Filipinos have risen in arms against the selling of our girls. Among the many NGOs are:
* COALITION AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN
Phone: 4289673; Fax: 4342149
E-Mail: jean.enriquez@catw-ap.org
* CONSORTIUM AGAINST TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN
Phone: 2563463; Fax: 2547459
E-Mail: jpic@pacific-net.ph
* NATIONAL OFFICE OF MASS MEDIA
Phone: 5644518; Fax: 5637316
E-Mail: nomm@surfshop.net.ph
* END CHILD PROSTITUTION, CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AND THE TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN FOR SEXUAL PURPOSES
Phone: 9252803 or 04; Fax: 4331150
* VISAYAN FORUM
Phone: 5627120 or 5627810 Fax: 5634514
E-mail: visforum@skynet.net
* PHILIPPINE ALLIANCE AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY, INC.
Phone: 7245561 or 4150635