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Anna May is in her third year of college and on her
way to be a social worker. She is no ordinary girl. She was
trafficked form the province into a sex bar in Manila by local
people-traffickers when she was just 16. Her mother, a former bar
woman herself exploited at a young age, approved the deal and came
to collect some of the money. The traffickers and bar operators got
the rest. Anna May got a pittance and endured sexual abuse by
foreign sex tourists.
The scandal is that local
politicians and mayors issue licenses and permits to these sex dens
and the national government does little to investigate, charge and
convict the traffickers and pedophiles. Even a former Philippine UN
ambassador is being charged in New York by his former Filipina maid
for trafficking and abusing her.
People close to the retired Catholic priest now Gov. Ed Panlilio of
Pampanga, reported that the majority of the mayors of the province
are against his efforts to clean up the rampant sex industry in
Angeles City and elsewhere.
Social workers trying to rescue
the prostituted children and bring them to the children’s home are
frustrated when they learn police officers are also sidelining as
bar operators. That’s what we found in the “Young Angel” sex
bar in Hermosa, Bataan, and in “SkyLine” in Iba, Zambales. When
we called for the rescue of the children in Skyline, the NBI
anti-trafficking chief sent a heavily armed convoy almost three
weeks too late. By then the owner, a police officer was tipped off
and all the minors were trafficked elsewhere.
The money spent by well meaning
US Aid officials and the US State Department to stamp out
trafficking of persons in the Philippines is mostly wasted.
Government officials and law enforcement officers will make a big
show of cooperation but let the trafficking and exploitation go on
behind the scenes. The entire advocacy in the world is useless if
there is no political will and law enforcement and care for the
victims.
Despite the instruction of the
secretary of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for government
social workers to rescue and bring the victims of trafficking and
sexual exploitation to the nongovernment homes for children,
they prefer to send them back to the province, from where they are
trafficked again. The minors are not sufficiently helped to overcome
the trauma and be protected and empowered so they can testify
against the traffickers and abusers. That’s why there are so few
convictions. The Preda home for trafficked and sexually exploited
minors is waiting for referrals from the DSWD social workers tasked
to rescue the children.
The undercover surveillance that
the Preda workers do shows pimps offering children to foreigners for
sex for as little as P3,000 to P5,000, or it’s open season all
year round for the sex tourists. US based religious group of the
moral majority are calling for sanctions and a boycott of selected
Philippine tourist destinations where sex trafficking is widespread.
The US State department in its
excellent report on the state of trafficking world wide says of the
Philippines: “However, the government demonstrated weak efforts to
prosecute trafficking cases and convict trafficking offenders. There
were only three convictions under the 2003 anti-trafficking law
during the reporting period, a minimal increase from one conviction
obtained last year. Given the scope and magnitude of the internal
trafficking problem this number of convictions is troubling.
Achieving tangible results in prosecuting trafficking cases and
convicting trafficking offenders is essential for the government of
the Philippines to continue progress towards compliance with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.”
In the case of Anna May, Preda
social workers heard about it and hurried to investigate and found
her in a house near the airport ready to be shipped abroad to Japan.
After a dramatic rescue, she was brought to the Preda home safe for
trafficked and sexually exploited children. There she recovered and
became an advocate for children’s rights and a successful scholar.
Today, she wants to help many more young girls like her who are
victims of this horrific form of modern slavery.
preda@info.com.ph
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