Saying goodbye to trafficking in persons

One of my pleasant experiences is working with the staff of  WeConnect,  a publication of Quezon City’s Gender and Development Resource and Coordinating Center (GADCRO).

Although I no longer live in Quezon City, GADCRO’s head, Mary Ruby Palma, got me as editorial consultant, purposely to continue our relationship which dates back to the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. Our meetings have been serious sometimes (talking about politics, who should be in and out of government, for example), and fun most times, like listening to Ruby read her poems, or planning a garden of herbs at the Quezon City Memorial grounds, or having tea with kindred souls like Daphne Roxas of Asian Women’s Network  on Gender and Development,  and Betty Lou Penera, former director of Philippine News Agency. These are true friends, come bad times or high water.

The paper’s issue that is coming out in the next few days  reports about   the activities of the city administration. One sees that the admin is busy – from  Mayor Herbert Bautista and Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, to  the people helping make the city a good example of good governance.

My  piece  in this issue is  the forum on Anti-Trafficking in Persons. In it I say that teachers play an important  role in preventing violence against women and children  (VAWC) and trafficking in persons (TIP). We hear stories of young, innocent  girls being lured into the  sex trade by recruiters who enter school premises, or wait at street corners for potential preys. Most teachers are not aware of this.

This is precisely why the Quezon City government partnered with the Department of Justice-Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (DOJ-IACAT) to hold a citywide forum inviting superintendents, division heads, principals and teachers of the city’s public schools to study and prevent  the rise of trafficking in persons. The forum and subsequent teachers’ seminars were organized by GADRCO, an organization that has contributed to the gender-fair thrust of the city administration.

The enormity of the trafficking problem was cited by Atty. Alexandrino H. Mallillin  of the Department of Justice thus:  The UN GIFT (Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking) estimates that nearly 2.5 million from 127 countries are being trafficked all over the world. Human trafficking is the greatest human rights challenge of the 21st century; it is the second largest crime activity (the first being the drug trade, the third illegal arms trade) that happens within or across borders, with high profit and low risk. Human trafficking has developed into a global enterprise estimated to be worth $32 billion.

QC Councilor Lena Marie “Mayen” Juico said the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), in 2012 alone, reported 1,376 victims of human trafficking nationwide and another 645 victims in the first semester of 2013. “As we all know, these are just the ‘reported’ cases. Many human trafficking violations go unreported because crimes are concealed by the victims, their families and their violators. Also, victims lack information on human trafficking and they do not know to whom and where they could complain.”

Former Ambassador Rosalinda Tirona said the event was the first city-wide forum for educators on the topic  in the world, which should be replicated in light of 70 percent of the Philippine population  being women and children.

Involvement in activities promoting the human rights of women has been the ambassador’s priority in the 40 years that she has served the government.

On his part, Jedrick C. Ng, executive officer, training section of IACAT-DOJ, said majority of trafficked persons are women and children.    

According to a UNODC report, sexual exploitation is the most common form of human trafficking (79 percent), followed by forced labor (18 percent).

As to “push” factors that lead young women to be “trafficked,” Ng cited  economics (poverty, financial crisis, unemployment); pressure or the peer factor; social, or experience of abuse, neglect and abandonment, and cultural, which means the desire to be urbanized, or consumerism including the desire to own cell phones, nice clothes. A cultural factor driving victims to fall, unwittingly, for the promise of good pay and amenities abroad is being discriminated against for one’s ethnic origin.

The Philippine Congress passed  RA 9208 , or the anti-trafficking law,  in 2003. This law was expanded in 2013.

 So far, as Atty. Mallillin reported, there have been 2,041 monitored cases. The top three reported cases are found at NCR (703 cases); Region 7 has 254 cases, and Region 3, 224 cases.

Mallillin said that as of October 2014, there have been 160 counts of conviction, with 171 persons convicted.

Those figures are small, on account of  cases not reported by victims due to shame and other factors.

That is not to say that the IACAT has been sleeping on the job. The agency, with Vice President Jejomar Binay as chairman emeritus and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima as chairman, has set up a four-point national strategic action plan for 2012-2016 in dealing with the TIP problem, namely, prevention, prosecution, protection and partnership. Information awareness is aired  on 702 DZAS AM every Tuesday, at 8-8:45 a.m., and  special videos featuring Dingdong Dantes and Christian Bautista are shown at designated places. More aggressive drives against traffickers are being launched by government agencies.

Rita Clara Padilla, executive director of Engender Rights Inc., talked about the city’s legislative response to anti-trafficking. Ordinances are directed at prohibiting nude/lewd shows, prostitution, trafficking in persons, and regulating night establishments.

Eliminating trafficking of women and children will take a long time, for sure. But the city is moving in that direction. In Atty. Mallillin’s presentation is the report on the Philippines retaining its Tier 2 status in the latest 2014 Global Trafficking in Persons Report of the United States Department of State. “Being Tier 2 status means that the Philippines is making significant efforts to comply with the requirements of the US Trafficking in Persons Protection Act.”