BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The Philippines is included in the Tier 2 list of countries being watched for human trafficking.
It was tagged along with 51 other countries in the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 2009 report by the US State Department’s undersecretary for democracy and global affairs.
The report, which came ahead of the nationwide observance of the Global Day Against Trafficking today, said that the Philippines does not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards, although these countries are making significant efforts to implement the law.
The event is also being observed in Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, in support of the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on Nov. 20, 1989.
Under Tier 2, the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking in a country is very significant or is significantly increasing or there is failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year.
Helen Bagasao, of the multi-sectoral advocacy group Philippines Against Child Trafficking (PACT), encouraged journalists yesterday to help in the campaign against trafficking.
Last month in Baguio, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Cordillera rescued four teenage victims of alleged trafficking, a trade that is getting worse here, the country’s vacation capital and tourism center in northern Philippines.
PACT, citing the 2009 US Department of State TIP report, said like women and children victims in Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Pretoria, South Africa, Saipan, Guman, Beirut, Hong Kong, Dubai and Bangkok, Filipino women and children, most of whom come from rural and poverty-stricken areas, are trafficked to Manila, Cebu, Davao, Zamboanga and other urban centers.
Even with the nine-year-old Republic Act 9208 (Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act) punishing recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring and receiving of girls and boys below 18 years old for exploitative purposes, trafficking continues to thrive, destroying the lives of Filipino children, according to Bagasao. – Artemio Dumlao