IF YOU ever worried because there are more and more women in prostitution around Central Bank at night, then worry some more because these ladies are but a speck in the number of the prostituted, majority of whom are children.
Technology has spawned a dark place for children and it's a whole gamut of social ills that bring them there -- starting with unreported incest and the slow justice system.
"Actually, ang atong mga bata na naa sa prostitution, usa sa mga dagko nga percentage ngano na prostituted sila - incest (Majority of the prostituted children are victims of incest and rape)," said Sister Edna B. Gado of the Sisters of Mary, the case management officer of Talikala Incorporated.
As case management officer, Sister Edna deals with rape and child abuse cases that are referred to Talikala, a non-government organization based in Davao City that has been working with the prostituted and those at risk of being prostituted for 31 years now.
"They will just tell me, we already got wet, we might as well take a bath," she added.
In the regular play therapy they hold for the prostituted as part of their advocacy to provide psycho-social assistance, a group of 15 participants will have 10 to 12 who are victims of incest. In many of these cases, the perpetrators were into drugs.
Sister Edna said these are unreported rape cases since the children already opted to make money from what has already been destroyed.
Many of the perpetrators are grandfathers, many of the children are children of single parents: Dysfunctional families.
The girls would most often claim they are already "okay".
"Okay na daw siya, pero naa siya sa prostitution (How can they be okay when they are in prostitution)," Talikala executive director Jeanette Laurel-Ampog said.
In the 31 years that Talikala has been working with the prostituted, there are more children now than ever. The youngest that Talikala has in its roster at present is an 11 years old girl in sixth grade, although toddlers are among the victims of the cases Talikala handles from all over Mindanao.
Technology fuels trade
Had Talikala not been working closely with the prostituted for 31 years now, reaching out to the girls in prostitution would have been close to impossible these days.
"Walang marker, walay signs, estudyante gyud (You can hardly identify them as they look like ordinary students)," Laurel-Ampog said. There are those who wear a little make-up like many high school students do, but there are also those who do not.
It's a hit or miss.
These children are doing business out of sight, in Messenger group chats.
"Children are pimping each other through referrals and prostitution is through cellphone," Sister said.
The girls even have a word for this: Chatitution.
Aside from Chatitution, they identify each other as HDB, which means: Hanap-Deal-Bayad (Search-Deal-Pay).
They used to refer to the prostituted as "Merang" or "Mers" taken from "mo-customeray" meaning someone who entertains customers for sex. But Merang and Mers are already passe. Now it's HDB. Like, "HDB na siya (She's an HDB)."
Networking, reaching out
Talikala recognizes them by their peers because from experience, there is a slim chance that prostituted girls will mingle with those who are not, and if indeed a child finds herself in the company of the prostituted, sooner or later, she will be in prostitution.
In Talikala's work in the communities, they also work with what they call "children at risk of prostitution" and have activities for these children to help them stay away or at least know their rights and whom they can seek assistance from if ever they fall. There are times, however, when girls Talikala thought are still at risk are actually already in prostitution. These girls are pointed out to Talikala by their peers.
One other indicator: the cellphone model. When a poor child has the top model of low-end brands like Oppo and Vivo or high-end brands like Huawei or iPhone, that is already a red flag.
Trap
Would it have helped had these girls sued those who raped them? Sadly, no.
A case they handled of a five years old gangraped by six boys has been dragging on. The girl is now ten and yet there was only two court hearings held. Of the six boys, only two remain the rest are nowhere.
It becomes more complicated with incest as this involves family honor and the reliance of the child on the aggressor for food, shelter, education, and other considerations.
Throw in the procedures that require that the children be the complainant where they have to relate what happened to them for the police blotter, the prosecution office, the trial court over and over again; this is very difficult and traumatizing for children.
Many opt not to sue. Those who do would back out, many times at the very start, sometimes even when the case is already in court.
Thus, Talikala gives more focus on counseling to build up from what has been destroyed and guide the victims out of the harrowing experiences because the children will have to live with the self that has been violated the rest of their lives -- if they do not kill themselves first.