Human Trafficking in The Philippines - The Victims

The Victims

Those involved in the kidnapping of children occasionally make video tapes of children being sexually abused.

A 13 year old child Sharon tells how she was forced to service more than 1,500 clients before she escaped. My back ached and I bled, she said, I tried to run away but the guard at the door blocked my way and pushed me back into the room. I cried and cried all night.

The UN paper says there are also cases in which the children are "kidnapped, trafficked across borders or from rural to urban areas, and moved from place to place so that they effectively disappear".

Children are at risk of hiv/aids from child molesters.

The prevalence of gonorrhea and chlamydia was 18.6% and 29.1% respectively. Philippine law provides for compulsory HIV testing in some circumstances, and of course people may voluntarily be tested for AIDS. The Philippine government has provided a mechanism for anonymous HIV testing and guarantees anonymity and medical confidentiality in the conduct of such tests.

Men, Women and children involved in prostitution are vulnerable to rape, murder, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Some men said that it served them right to be infected by men. Wendy Chapkis, author of the book Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor in which she interviewed sex workers said at the 1998 National Women's Studies Association's annual conference at Oswego State University, "We as a culture believe that women who are sexual deserve what they get, are asking to be raped.".

Abortion is illegal in the Philippines. Unsafe abortions render women vulnerable not only to infections and other health complications, but even to death. Because these abortions are carried out in illegal abortion clinics there is no record of how many women and children, if any, die each year as a result.

According to ECPAT chair Ron O'Grady, the chances of full rehabilitation are slim for children who have been sexually abused repeatedly. He adds: "We know that those children who are kept in brothels die quite young. (They) die in many cases before they have had a chance to live. We know they die from AIDS, from drugs and from committing suicide." What sex tourism really means to the "real girls" is reflected in Poppy's words, captured by Ron O'Grady in his book, The Child and the Tourist: I found myself dancing at a club at the age of 11... I have had different kinds of customers, foreigners and Filipinos. I tried suicide but it didn't work so I turned to drugs. I want to die before my next birthday.

In the exploitative system of prostitution, bar owners and pimps make the most profit while the women are exposed to abuse, physical, emotional and psychological trauma. The absence of punitive measures for the male customers enables them to abuse the women in prostitution. The problem is compounded by the fact that society, even the church, discriminates against women in prostitution.

Pimps bend the girls to their will, drug them. Degrading and humiliating the girls is at the discretion of their international clients. After two, three years the girls have lost their health and beauty. From then on, they are on offer at bargain price to local clients. The humiliation these girls have to go through often drives them into self-destruction. With no self-esteem their lives are on a dead-end journey. With drug addiction, unwanted pregnancies, venereal disease and AIDS the girls go to rack and ruin.

At least 90 percent of HIV positive people in Angeles city were female sex workers, according to a study of the Training, Research and Information for Development Specialists Foundation Inc. (Tridev).

CATW, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women lists numerous issues and adversities faced by women and girls in prostitution:

Problems Related to Health include: lack of comprehensive health services, not just on sexual health; women’s lack of knowledge of health issues; fear of doctors or medical professionals; and or risky health practices; drug use and risk from drugged client expensive and compulsory check-ups for issuance of health certificates; compulsory HIV tests and the lack of pre-test and post-test counseling, as well as the violation of confidentiality (publicly announced results) or no results given; lack of funds for hospitalization and health emergencies; forced intake of contraceptive pills and unsafe abortions.

Problems Related to the Law or the Legal System

• Abusive, discriminatory conduct of raids, including arrests, maltreatment during raids or while in custody, extortion for release.
• Women held in debt bondage.
• Restriction of movement.
• Anti-vagrancy laws are unconstitutional, i.e. they violate equal protection and are classist and sexist in their enforcement.

Problems Related to Services

• Lack of education, especially in the areas of literacy, rights awareness, and peer education.
• Women have the status of criminals.
• Inadequate support systems in the areas of counseling and legal assistance, as well as child care.
• The need for skills development, such as organizational and management skills, leadership, negotiation and documentation.

Problems Related to Violence Against Women

• Trafficking in women by syndicates that practice active, deceptive recruitment.
• Economic abuse, i.e. no work, no food and poverty.
• A high rate of rape.
• Domestic violence.
• Violence caused by barangay (village) officials (fees, competition, harassment).
• Harmful physical, emotional, and psychological effects on the women.
• The “salvaging” or summary execution, especially of sick women.