Drive vs child trafficking needs to be strengthened

THE Philippines has still a lot of work to do when it comes to eradicating child trafficking, government and civilian observers agreed on Tuesday.

In a press conference in Quezon City, the Philippines Against Child Trafficking (PACT) lamented the small conviction rate of traffickers since the inception of the Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking Persons Act of 2003.

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“While we have current legislation, there is still a high number of children continuing to be trafficked, via sexual or labor exploitation. I think there were less than 20 convictions since the RA 9208 was passed, that's very low. It follows also that the prosecution of traffickers is low,” said Ma. Salome Ujano, national coordinator of PACT.

Data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said it has assisted 632 victims of trafficking in persons, illegal recruitment, prostitution, pedophilia, pornography, and child labor in 2009.

Of this number 188 were male minors, 408 were female minors and 36 were women.

2009 Trafficking report

The Philippines is categorized under Tier 2 in the 2009 US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report.

The category refers to countries that are making “significant efforts to comply with the [Office to Monitor and Trafficking of Persons] OMCTP standards but show no evidence that they increased their efforts compared to the previous year.”

A country may also be demoted to the watch-list if there would be continued spike in cases.

“It (the fight against human trafficking) is sustained but inadequate,” the report stated.

Also, the country will have to bear sanctions from Washington like the withholding of non-humanitarian or non-trade related US aid.

The report said the country is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.

A significant number of Filipino men and women who migrate abroad for work were also subjected to involuntary servitude in Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, the report added.

It also underscored the growth of "child sex tourism" in the country.

“Child sex tourism continues to be a serious problem for the Philippines, with sex tourists coming from Northeast Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America to engage in sexual activity with minors,” it said.

A recent trend on Muslim girls from Mindanao being trafficked to the Middle East by other Muslims was also noted, the report said.

“An increasing number of women and children from Mindanao were trafficked internally and trans­nationally for domestic work.”

Many experts believe that extreme poverty in the Philippines, Cambodia, Burma, Laos and Indonesia, combined with poor law enforcement and corruption, are the reasons why trafficking continues to prey on the region's children.

"We lamented the current situation. The child traffickers have been creative already in getting away with the law. They have also learned how to be discreet on their operations,” said the Philippine NGO Coalition on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Government response

But the government said it is doing "all efforts to curb" trafficking.

“We would like to emphasize na when it comes to protecting our women and children, there have been laws addressing the problem. However, when it comes to regulation, there are many agencies mandated to do so. In DSWD, our regulations deal more on psychosocial services that are provided by the government organizations, non-government organizations,” said Gemma Gabuya, director of DSWD's social technology program.

"I think it's more of cooperation in bringing the national policies down to the grassroots, on how we can translate them to actions like the policies protecting the rights of women and children," she added.

Meanwhile, the European Union said it will give 3.3 million euros as assistance to the labor department's anti-illegal recruitment and trafficking projects.

“The institutional mechanisms are in place but the country needs moral and financial support,” said Ma. Romina Sta. Clara of the EU-Philippines.

In November last year, the Australian government launched the five-year A$21 million (P800 million) Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons (Artip) Project which aims to strengthen the capability of the Philippine criminal justice system to combat people trafficking.

Policy recommendations

In the same conference, the PACT came up with six policy recommendations to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) supposedly to "improve the Filipino society's response to child trafficking."

* continually improve the standards of services by adopting the standards set by DSWD and implementing the Philippine Guidelines for the Protection of Trafficked Children at the local level.

* set up community and center-based services at the town and city level to ensure sustained and good quality of services for victims.

* improve law enforcement and prosecution to improve the Philippines' status (Tier 2 watchlist)

* set up quick response teams at the local level (provincial to the barangay level) must be set up and made financial.

* improve prevention education and information programs at different levels, as thousands of women and children in the rural and urban poor areas still fall prey to traffickers.

* enhance implementation of RA 9208 and other special laws on abuse and exploitation, by mandating local government units to issue local ordinances to institutionalize and make functional the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-trafficking and Violence against Women and their Children (IACAT-VAWC) organization in all provinces, cities and municipalities and the Philippine Guidelines at the local level. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)