EDITORIAL — Weakening the ICC

As per a report in The Philippine STAR, two Filipinas heading to overseas destinations separately last July 23 and 24, 2026 were stopped by Immigration officers at the airport after being identified as potential victims of human trafficking.

One of them, 39 years old, said she had been recruited to work as a cleaner in Pakistan and had been receiving travel instructions from another man on how to get there. Immigration officers suspected this was so that her real final destination could be hidden.

The following day, Immigration officers also stopped a 25-year-old woman from leaving after finding out she was headed to Myanmar, where she had been promised a monthly salary of $1,500 to work at an online gaming hub after applying through a group she found in social media.

Also earlier this year, a woman was also prevented from leaving the country after she was identified as a suspected victim of trafficking linked to an illegal surrogacy scheme abroad. She was headed to Tbilisi, Georgia, where she was going to bring a baby to term for some clients.

It’s sad that vultures like illegal recruiters continue to prey on our women.

It’s one thing when illegal recruiters and human traffickers actually take people by force or escort them out of the country personally. But what do we do when the victims themselves seem willing to risk being illegally recruited or trafficked?

In the case of the three women mentioned here, there doesn’t seem to have been any force, coercion, or intimidation that led them to try and leave the country. They were willing to go for monetary consideration.

Of course, we can’t blame them. With the lack of well-paying opportunities here, who wouldn’t want to go abroad to earn?

And that’s the rub. Illegal recruiters and human traffickers use money, or at least the promise of if, to lure people abroad. Likely into situations where they can be taken advantage of and to places where the law cannot help them.

How do we avoid becoming victims? The government isn’t remiss in reminding people to be wary. If a job offer is too good to be true, then it probably is.