Jollygoodfellow Posted December 3, 2008 Posted December 3, 2008 MANILA, 2 December 2008 (IRIN) - A recent court ruling has given fresh impetus to the battle against human trafficking. An owner and a cashier at a bar in Daraga, Albay - south of Manila - were convicted for trafficking minors for sexual exploitation on 27 November. They were sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment and fined around US$20,000. The case involved four girls, 14 to 16 years old, who were trafficked from their homes in Manila to the bar and forced to work as "guest relation officers". They were rescued in February 2007 by the National Bureau of Investigation, which acted on the tip of one girl who had escaped and returned to Manila. The conviction, only the second this year, is a much-needed boost in the fight against human trafficking in the Philippines. In June, a woman was sentenced to life imprisonment for trafficking seven minors for sexual exploitation in a bar in Batangas, a province south of the capital. "Let this be a warning against human traffickers that their glory days are over and that they must immediately stop. Whether here or abroad, the Inter-agency Council against Trafficking [IACAT] will not leave any stone unturned in its efforts to fight the crime of human trafficking," acting chairman Ricardo Blancaflor said. A major problem According to the US State Department's Human Rights Report in 2007, the Philippines was "a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour". NGOs and government agencies estimated that 300,000 to 400,000 women were trafficked annually.Data from the Visayan Forum Foundation, an NGO, reveals that people likely to be trafficked are 12-22 years old and mostly girls, who are usually promised domestic work but end up in sex work. The Department of Justice's assistant prosecutor Severino Ga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_shor Posted December 3, 2008 Posted December 3, 2008 Hope they make them do the whole 20 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMason Posted December 5, 2008 Posted December 5, 2008 Hope they make them do the whole 20 years.I couldn't agree more. I can't help wondering though, are they going after locals and foreigners alike or are they being selective? When I've seen stories like this in the past they were mostly foreign owned businesses that were prosecuted. It could be that prosecution of the crimes is equitable and it's just the reporting of these cases that is limited to ones with foreigners involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_shor Posted December 5, 2008 Posted December 5, 2008 Hope they make them do the whole 20 years.I couldn't agree more. I can't help wondering though, are they going after locals and foreigners alike or are they being selective? When I've seen stories like this in the past they were mostly foreign owned businesses that were prosecuted. It could be that prosecution of the crimes is equitable and it's just the reporting of these cases that is limited to ones with foreigners involved.Or many of the locals have enough influence and money to avoid being prosecuted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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