By NICOLE-ANNE LAGRIMAS AND PAUL JOHN DOMALAON SILENCE was the name of the game when Jane* was forced into prostitution. Threatened by her traffickers that they would “ruin her life,” she could not even tell her mother what she was going through. She was made to take illegal drugs while she was being abused. “Sobrang
By VERLIE Q. RETULIN It was Aug. 2, 2014 when Ron, 27, arrived in Norway. Her host family welcomed her warmly at the airport and then took her to their home where dinner was waiting for her. Ron had gone to the Scandinavian country as an au pair, made possible through a cultural exchange program.
By JAKE SORIANO CITING reports that some public officials are “complicit in trafficking or allow traffickers to operate with impunity,” the United States Department of State has urged the Philippine government to prosecute, convict and stringently punish them. “Reports assert some corrupt officials accept payments or sexual services from establishments notorious for trafficking, accept bribes
By YVETTE B. MORALES What does a trafficking victim look like? A female who hails from a far-flung area, came a quick answer from the audience. Tara Dermott, project leader of the International Organization on Migration X (IOM X) was quick to correct the misimpression, saying everyone can be a trafficking victim. “There is no
By JAKE SORIANO UPI, Maguindanao–The local police here warned residents against accepting job offers to work as housekeepers in Marawi City due to reported cases of exploitation there. The Upi Police Station Women and Children Protection Desk (WCPD) said illegal recruiters and traffickers have been preying on poor women minors from the barrios. With the
By JAKE SORIANO A top foreign affairs official said some 2,000 overseas Filipino workers, all of them victims of human trafficking, remain trapped in Syria three years after civil unrest broke out there. Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Senior Special Assistant Renato Villa said during a migration conference earlier this week the Philippine government is
By JAKE SORIANO HUMAN trafficking is a “big concern” in Mindanao, and will be firmly addressed by the proposed Bangsamoro in the south, one of the drafters of the law creating the autonomous political entity said. The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), a crucial piece of legislation in the peace deal between the Philippine government and
Text and photos by AVIGAIL M. OLARTE TACLOBAN CITY – On the bed is where she could end it, she thought. She’s 16, he’s six months old. Alyssa (not her real name) was sold for sex one night last year. On board a docked ship in Leyte, in a locked room, a Japanese repeatedly raped
By VINCE NONATO DESPITE the Philippine government’s efforts to combat human trafficking, the United States’latest global Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report said it its overall number of convictions remained low. “The Government of the Philippines does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;however, it is making significant efforts to do so,”
By JANE DASAL THE Philippines has strong laws penalizing human trafficking, but the slow prosecution of cases remains a huge barrier in the campaign against traffickers and their cohorts, an expert said. The trial process is too long and the number of convictions is still low, Visayan Forum policy director Shalima Parmanand said Thursday at an antitrafficking