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Thursday, January 20, 2005
Child porn in RP a US$1-B business: senator
MANILA -- The Philippines is the world's fourth-biggest producer of child pornography and the US$1 billion industry is growing rapidly, a senator said Wednesday.
Senator Ana Consuelo "Jamby" Madrigal said the problem was "getting bigger".
"In three years, we could be No. 1," said Madrigal during a hearing conducted by the Senate committee on youth, women and family relations, which she chairs, on Wednesday.
The proliferation of child pornographic materials, added Madrigal, was what prompted her to file a bill against it.
The measure also seeks to ban and impose stiff penalties on those possessing and producing child pornographic materials.
She did not elaborate on the extent of the proposed ban.
She said the country was the fourth biggest producer of illicit videos, magazines and Internet content.
Her comments came at a hearing to help draft the bill.
"Hindi ito liliit kung hindi natin susugpuin at kung hindi tayo magkaroon ng batas (This will not be minimized if we do not fight it and if we do not have a law) making possession of child pornographic materials a criminal offense," stressed Madrigal.
Currently, there are laws protecting children against abuse, exploitation and discrimination, but there is no specific law against child pornography.
Madrigal urged her colleagues in the Senate to hasten the passage of bills protecting the welfare of children.
She revealed during the hearing that most of the victims of child pornography are those aged 10 years old and below.
Madrigal showed pictures and video of a teenage girl having sexual intercourse with an elderly foreigner, saying she wanted the public to see the "horrors of child porn."
Anti-child porn activist Alex Ramos said the materials were seized from several foreigners and their Filipino accomplices arrested in police raids last year.
Among those arrested were a Belgian and two American men, Ramos said.
Ramos said the number of victims, driven to pornography by poverty, has grown steadily.
At least 100 girls, mostly in their teens, were rescued from porn syndicates last year alone, he said, adding that the actual number could be much bigger.
"What we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg," Ramos said.
"We are one of the countries that is the favorite destination of sex tourism...and one of the byproducts of sex tourism is the production and distribution of child porn materials."
He said the syndicates pay Filipino girls P1,000 to P3,000 a week.
Madrigal added that foreign syndicates operate in the country because government has no law against child pornography unlike other countries.
The Internet has made it faster and easier to distribute porn, Ramos, meanwhile, said, adding that most of the clients of "Internet sex houses" in the country are middle-aged men from the United States and Europe.
There are reportedly 600,000 child prostitutes in the country and about 10 percent of them fall victims to child pornography. (JPM/AP)
(January 20, 2005 issue)
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