STAUNCH advocates against human trafficking gathered in Bacolod City over the weekend to share modes of interventions and good practices in combating human trafficking in the community and country.
Voice of the Free (formerly Visayan Forum) chairman of the board Jocelle Batapa-Sigue shared her own experience in rescuing victims of human trafficking to her fellow advocates.
Batapa-Sigue said she has been in this advocacy in her entire nine years as a councilor of Bacolod City up to the present.
As to her present count, their group was able to rescue 39 victims of human trafficking.
“We are now more inspired not just to rescue children but also rehabilitate the victims. The biggest rescue that I have initiated and supported was in Antique involving nine children,” she said.
She said that she cannot resist going with the rescue teams.
“Our direction now is to have programs that will uplift the lives of the children that we have rescued. In life, there is no such thing as an accident because my expertise is really on digital and information technology. And right, I recommend that we help our rescued children learn about computers because if you are digitally literate, you can work in almost any industry and I have proven that because I have helped some of the young ladies who are now working either as a cashier and secretary instead of not having any means of employment because digital skills cut across all workplaces and industries,” she said.
But the most problematic part is really in the rehabilitation and also the prosecution, she added.
“In the area of prevention, all of you who are here deserved to be recognized because we are doing a good job in terms of prevention,” she said.
She shared that they have done so much insofar as spreading awareness about human trafficking. Now, parents are aware that they can also be penalized.
She said that there are three kinds of trafficking in the Philippines - drug, gun and human trafficking and the worse is really human trafficking because once drugs and guns are gone, they are gone.
“But human beings are recycled. I have seen that in many children that we have rescued children, not from the brothels but from the households, because at a young age, they were prostituted and after several years, they became household helpers and the cycle continues and at the end of the day, some people are profiting from this activity which is very sad,” she added.