More support for anti-human trafficking!

Congratulations to my uncle, Dr. Oliverio Octavio and Tita Lucy Segura on the occasion of their 50th or golden wedding anniversary today. It is always heartwarming when couples reach their golden years living together because they become examples to other married couples that with love, marriages do work. So congrats again Tio Oc and Tia Lucy on this very happy day!

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 Today’s is the 54th death anniversary of Pres. Ramon Magsaysay, who is still the most loved President of the Philippines. It was early dawn when Pres. Magsaysay’s lumbering old C-47 Dakota which was turned into a Presidential plane dubbed Mt. Pinatubo crashed into the steep slopes of Mt. Manunggal. Few people know that there was a recorded 5 million Filipinos who joined his funeral. That number is still a record, compared to those who accompanied the slain Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino or his wife Pres. Cory Aquino.

 I have a black and white photo of President Magsaysay with his arm around my father Atty. Jesus “Lindong” Avila, unfortunately, I never had the chance to ask my father why he was close to the President as he died at a young age. Another person who loved Pres. Magsaysay was my late mentor Sir Max Soliven who was very close to the President and always talked about those days when he was in Malacañang.

 This is why Pres. Magsaysay’s slogan to combat communism still rings in my ears, when he said, “To stop communism, you must find them, fool them, fight them and finish them… then offer them the hand of peace!” Sir Max wrote about the doctrine of the four “Fs” which we have failed so miserably, which is why today, we still have a communist insurgency decades after Pres. Magsaysay left us in the slopes of Mt. Manunggal.

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 I was in Manila for the Commitment Week against Trafficking in Persons organized by the Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. (VFFI) and sponsored by USAID with the theme “Forging Partnerships and innovating solutions to end trafficking of Filipinos” held at the Crowne Plaza in Galleria along EDSA. On hand to open the week-long forum is Ms. Cecilia Flores Oebanda, President of the Visayan Forum Foundation. She is the only US State Department awardee in combating trafficking in persons. Also with her is my good friend, Department of Justice (DoJ) Undersecretary Hon. Jose Vicente “Jovy” Salazar who chairs the Task Force IACAT.

 Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. Traffickers are persons who prey on the weak and the poor, luring them with false promises of a better life. Today over 2.5 million live in inhumane conditions the majority of whom live in Asia and Pacific. Trafficking has become a very lucrative US$31.6 billion industry affecting some 161 countries. Of this figure, 1.2 million are children who are trafficked every year.

 Call it timely that Cable Network News (CNN) came up with their Freedom Project advocating a global awareness of modern day slavery. When we think of slavery, our thoughts always bring us to those times in America when blacks were put on chains and made to work in the cotton farms. But as the CNN report showed, there are more slaves today than at anytime in the past. Indeed, the most vulnerable victims of modern day slavery are women, especially young girls that are victims of human trafficking.

 I’m glad that CNN just a week ago focused on this global concern where their reporters traveled from Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa and Russia where migrant workers are often deprived of their legal rights and the women end up in brothels. CNN reports showed that some 800,000 people are trafficked every year and this has become a global phenomenon. They put the number around 27 million. You can look it up in their website freetheslaves.net.

 One of the speakers was His Excellency Rod Smith Ambassador of Australia to the Philippines who gave his country’s commitment to support our country’s effort to combat human trafficking. US Amb. Harry K. Thomas Jr. also spoke before the group making also his nation’s commitment to fight human trafficking. He tried to speak in Tagalog but with American slang. He said, “Like you, I ask myself: How many more sons and daughters will be trapped into this? How many more will be deceived into prostitution where they are indelibly scarred. I say enough is enough. Tama na, sobra na! Labanan natin lahat ang human trafficking.

 He thanked DoJ Sec. Lilia de Lima for doubling the convictions of person involved in human trafficking but more needs to be done. The US gov’t will continue to support the PH government including NGOs to raise public awareness and improve on what we’re doing. He added that we have to renew and invigor our commitment to combat human trafficking but we have to do more! Indeed the task is daunting, but it can be done!