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Monday, April 25, 2005
Editorial: Fighting child predators
“FOOD, clothing and money.”
THIS was what Edilberto Tabalada Datan shelled out to have sex with eight Filipino teenagers during frequent trips to the country.
The 61-year-old Filipino-American was sentenced to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty before the US District Court of committing child pornography and illicit sexual conduct with minors.
Datan’s arrest was part of Operation Predator. Since its launching in July 2003, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has made over 5,000 individual arrests. Its officials vow to use their enforcement authority to combat sex crimes in the US and other countries.
But as Datan unwittingly revealed, the susceptibility of youngsters, specifically in Third World countries, to the sexual baits of “food, clothing and money” shows why ordinary citizens should bolster the authorities’ fight against child pornography, child prostitution, child trafficking, and child sex tourism.
Foul by-product
“Child sex tourism is the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) by foreigners.” According to www.ecpat.org, the Philippines is vulnerable to this global phenomenon, like other less developed countries where international tourism answers survival and development needs.
ECPAT observes that “tourism itself is not responsible for child sex tourism but creates increased opportunities for CSEC to occur.”
The marketing of Asia, for instance, reinforces the submissive and exotic stereotypes that appeal to racist and sexist biases. Fear of contacting HIV/Aids fuels the demand for virgins. Tourist destinations, havens of consumerism and employment, attract the young who, like Datan’s victims, trade their bodies for “food, clothing and money.”
While Ecpat studies show that locals have a high demand for under-aged commercial sex workers, it confirms the ICE’s findings that foreigners purposely engage in child prostitution overseas because they assume they can escape detection and prosecution.
Ecpat’s profiles these sex predators as either “preferential offenders,” with a clear sexual preference for children, or opportunists who don’t engage in child prostitution in their home countries but view travel as a license to discard moral and cultural norms.
Foreign sex patrons can be tourists, business travelers or expatriates. They are usually male. In some cases, male and female offenders travel in pairs.
Local contacts
What makes child sex tourism thrive is the cooperation of third parties who procure the children from local communities.
More significantly, these local contacts obstruct the justice process when they remain at large and threaten the victims. In the Datan case, the Fil-Am’s local contacts are reportedly roaming free and scaring the victims from fully cooperating with the authorities.
The Police Regional Office 7 is appealing for information to be given to the Philippine National Police or the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking in Persons.
This community vigilance is important for tipping off the police about seemingly harmless businesses or persons profiting from child sex tourism. Datan claimed that he procured his victims after watching the boys perform as a Filipino dance troupe. He learned about the “cultural performances” from friends.
Given the pervasiveness of sex predators in the tourism industry, it is important that investors and workers of the tourism and travel industry put into practice the anti-CSEC resolutions and declarations adopted by bodies like the International Hotel and Restaurant Association and the World Tourism Organization.
Ecpat notes that an improved climate for enforcement is set by international cooperation and the passage of extra territorial child sex tourism legislation.
With more training, the local police, the tourism industry and civil society can better report and intervene in situations where children are at risk.
But in the end, CSEC can only be arrested when communities reorient their values and put all children beyond the worth of “food, clothing and money.”
(April 25, 2005 issue)
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