PROSTITUTION has been around for centuries. It is considered to be the oldest business in the world. The legality of it varies from country to country.
In the Philippine context, this business is illegal. However, the government finds it hard to capture them these days because some transactions are through online and even through home service.
At present, the population of prostituted women has reached to almost 900,000 and still expected to rise every year. These prostituted women are as young as 11 to as old as 40 years old.
Prostitution is just one of the branches of the sex industry which includes pornography, nude modelling, stripping, and erotic dancing. But the question is, what really pushed these people to engage in this kind of business.
Last year, during the making of our documentary about prostitution, we interviewed a prostituted woman who has worked as a prostitute since she was 14. She has currently 5 children.
Most of the prostitutes would say that poverty is the major reason why they are doing this.
However, some of the prostituted women just do this to buy drugs and to fund their vices.
But, for our interviewee (name withheld), she said she is doing this just for her children to survive.
The religious society sees them as a dirty people because of their deeds of selling their selves. But deep inside it is obvious that they are struggling just for their family to survive.
Our interviewee also said she wanted to stop being in this kind of work but she couldn’t because she thinks this is only the way she can sustain the needs of her children. She is also struggling to tell herself to stop doing this but, she just can’t because of huge income she gets.
The problem with the society today is that they tend to focus on the obvious and not what is inside. They judge quickly but if they will just know the stories of those people, they might think twice. (Rogie Llego)