CEBU - Central Visayas has lesser cases filed against illegal traffickers, but National Police Commission prosecutor Maximo Lasaca said this can only mean trafficking of persons in Region 7 is slowly declining.
Lasaca, who just attended this year’s National Convention of Trafficking in Persons in Community Systems, said so far only three cases for bigtime trafficking were filed in the region in the last two years.
The United States-funded convention, Lasaca said, is aimed at identifying current strategies of local government units on strategies of combating human trafficking.
Lasaca said that the Socsargen region tops the statistics on trafficked victims and cases filed against perpetrators followed by Region 6.
He said the convention also recognized Central Visayas now to be far advanced in terms of communication and technology in addressing human trafficking.
Cited in particular was the effective adoption of the Closed-Community System Program piloted in barangay Bulacao, Talisay City, which is now being implemented in the barangays of other municipalities within the region.
“With everyone following this, then it is not far that illegal recruitment be it for persons or human organs will really be eventually stopped,” Lasaca said.
According to the statistics provided by the Provincial Women’s Commission, an estimated 10,000 young girls are trafficked from and through Cebu province and 70 percent of these are minors.
With this, a composite team of the Federal Bureau Investigation is coming over to look into the problem and the system being adopted.
Trafficking according to the United Nations Protocol is one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises and closely connected to money laundering, drug trafficking, document forgery and human smuggling and even documented ties to terrorism. — Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP (THE FREEMAN)