Parents warned not to use kids for money

CEBU, Philippines - A child’s right advocate yesterday warned parents who influence their children or push them into prostitution that they will face charges.

Atty. Joan Dymphna Saniel-Amit, Executive Director of Children’s Legal Bureau, said parents have responsibilities to their children and they should act as their models.

“Hunahunaon unta nila (parents) ang consequences before they will act,” she said.

Republic Act 9208 or the “Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003” states that it is illegal “to introduce or match for money, profit, or material, economic or other consideration, any person or, as provided for under Republic Act No. 6955, any Filipino woman to a foreign national, for marriage for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or trading him/her to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage.”

Saniel-Amit said anyone, including parents, found engaging in such activities will be prosecuted.

If the parents are the ones being accused, she said the concerned citizens who have knowledge of the illegal activity can help the victim file the case.

She said there are some parents who push their kids into prostitution and trade them for money. She added even the simple act of showing their children in front of a camera and having them pose daringly for a picture that will be eventually posted in pornographic sites is considered a form of harassment.

Saniel-Amit said these acts would lead to psychological, emotional, physical, and social effects on a child that may result to depression, poor self-esteem, dissociative, anxiety, school problems, animal cruelty, and could possibly lead to committing suicide.

She claimed they found many victims here in Cebu after the recovery of children’s pictures in the USB owned by Bella Ruby Santos, one of the suspects in the killing of Ellah Joy Pique.

Saniel-Amit is also calling other victims to surface and file appropriate charges against Santos and another suspect, Ian Charles Griffiths, a British national, to strengthen the case against them.

“Mas molig-on ang kaso kung daghan sila nga mo-file,” she said. (FREEMAN)