CHILD trafficking continues to be a perennial problem in the country.
It has now evolved from a street-based exploitation into online sexual exploitation in the digital age. But with the high number of reported cases, only few were prosecuted due to the current state of the country's judicial system.
Talikala-Davao executive director Jeanette Ampong in an interview said Talikala, a non-government organization who advocate for the protection of young women against sexual exploitation and human trafficking, they offering support, advice, training, and counseling to women and girls who have been forced into the sex trade.
Based on their data, there were a total of 64 cases of child trafficking and child prostitution that they have come across. Victims of these cases sought their help.
But she was saddened that out of this data, nobody proceeded with the filing of cases. Asked why the trafficked victims chose not to push through the cases, Ampong said that minors could not endure long and daunting court trials which led to case dismissal. Some minors opted to file instead an affidavit of desistance after being paid to settle the case by their traffickers.
“Because of the long judicial process, the usual average of having a trial sa child trafficking is five years, based on our experience by that time, ang minor nahimo ng tigulang [the minor have already grown],” Ampong said.
One of the reasons also is that, victims do not want to pursue a case is because some of the traffickers are also their friends, neighbors, or acquaintances who recruited them.
Although there are laws created to safeguard the children against trafficking, there are still loopholes in the case proceedings. There is already a directive to prioritize cases of trafficking but still, the process remains slow.
“What message are we sending sa mga doer of violence? Na pwede lang idelay-delay tapos mag desist man gihapon na sila, mabayran man na sila. Actually, ang judicial process kay maka unmake og biktima (What message are we sending to the doer of violence? That we can delay the process? The victims will desist once they are paid. The judicial process unmakes the victim),” Apong added.
They are currently building up cases in coordination with Luna Legal Resource Center (LUNA) to help out those rescued children to attain justice and put the suspects behind bars. Since the formation of Talikala, they had only four cases that they won, two in Cebu and two in Davao City while the rest were not pursued.
“Daghan balaod, challenge jud na, how to implement these laws kay naa na sa mga lawyer nga kamot (There are a lot of laws. It is a challenge how to implement these laws. It is now in the hands of the lawyer]) although the community has the responsibility to report,” she said.
On the other hand, Department of Justice (DOJ) undersecretary in-charge of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) Lawyer Emmeline Y. Aglipay-Villar said that in the Philippines, from January to July 2018, they have already recorded 27 persons convicted for trafficking.
“The serious and sustained efforts were demonstrated by convicting and punishing more traffickers, identifying more victims through active procedures in expanding its efforts in trafficked Filipinos,” she said.
Admitting that there are still aspects in the judicial system that needs to be improved especially in prosecuting traffickers in the period of 180 days, however, she emphasized that government agencies have taken strides to improve the process along with other agencies. There are just factors that the judges also can’t control like missing witnesses.
“Little by little, the fact that we have set up structures to combat trafficking, the fact that we have the cooperation of the agencies and as some headed by the IACAT is another big step, the fact that we have people working on the ground,” she added.
Online trafficking
Sam Inocencio, International Justice Mission (IJM) national director in the Philippines, told the media participants of the 10th U.S. Embassy Seminar for Media Reporting on Human Trafficking: Promoting Rights of Children, Women and Workers last September 13 at Hotel Jen Manila that Philippines has become one of the breeding ground for trafficking which he described as an economic, violent, and a hidden crime.
“Across the internet, sex predators from around the world are hunting Filipino children as young as one month old for purposes of online sexual exploitation,” Inocencio said.
Online exploitation of children is defined as the production for the purpose of online publications from various online platforms which is visuals videos, audio, photos, live streaming of the sexual exploitation for a third party from across the globe watching in the videos or hearing or live streaming of the abuse are not in physical presence.
He added that the cases they have encountered, most of the pedophiles came from US, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and other Western, European countries.
Also, Inocencio said almost 75 percent of IJM supported cases involved perpetrators who are relatives or close family friends of the victims.
“Once we addressed more or less sexual trafficking through effective law enforcement and criminal prosecution, however, we just displace them and we just moved them to online sexual exploitation. So technically, you have not killed the issue, we’re seeing a different thing,” he said.