Anti-trafficking in Cebu gains good results

The boom on tourism has no doubt brought development to areas that were once considered so inaccessible no one would go to such places. A case in point is Boracay or Panglao in Bohol, or Malapascua, north of the island of Cebu. But we also know that tourism has its dark and ugly side, which many pundits stereotype as “sex tourism.” But something is happening in Metro Cebu that would soon make all of these negatives a thing of the past.

In March 2007, the International Justice Mission (IJM), a human rights agency, established an office in Cebu and created a project known as “Project Lantern” which was funded through a $5-million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Last Thursday, the IJM, together with the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), that also created separate regional and local task forces, reported the results of Project Lantern. thanks to the combined effort not just of the police, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the DSWD, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) but also of many NGOs, to fight trafficking in Metro Cebu.

The results of Project Lantern were very encouraging, where in just three years at least 259 victims of trafficking were rescued, while 107 criminal cases were filed against suspected traffickers and they got host of convictions. The IJM also has separate sex-trafficking fact sheets for the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, with the full backing of the LGUs.

Due to space constraints, we cannot print all the results in one column, but we shall be featuring more great stories happening in Cebu due to Project Lantern, which gives our women and children a ray of hope that finally, something is being done to stop sex trafficking in our country. Thanks to IJM, notably Atty. Andrey Sawchenko, for their noble work in Cebu.

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Our article “Why we can’t catch up with our Asian neighbors” is still getting me a lot of responses. This one comes from an old friend, Edu Manzano, former ABS-CBN talk show host, and here are Edu’s comments:

“Dear Bobit, I read with much interest your recent article entitled ‘Why we can’t catch up with our Asian neighbors.” Allow me to share with you some information I acquired while doing research for a morning show segment I was to do on business process outsourcing or BPO.

“While there is much focus on the number of jobs being generated by this industry, the competitive advantage of the country in terms of a large manpower pool, an equally large pool of Filipinos who have excellent facility in English, which is unaccented, good telecom infrastructure and commonality with US legal and accounting standards, etc., not enough focus is being placed on the downside of BPO. Studies and interviews we conducted have shown the social costs to be tremendous.

“To cite a few, call center agents are subjected to a barrage of racial slurs, verbal abuse, sarcasm which they have to endure as the rules of work will not allow them to respond. Alcoholism is on the rise (one only has to notice the number of establishments serving alcohol 24/7 in the general vicinity of the BPOs. I personally conducted interviews with owners of these bars and restaurants. As per interviews conducted with HRD heads, they say that drug abuse is affecting quality of work and incidences of AIDS and other STDs is high compared to national averages.

“We must also look at the negative effects on the Filipino family and other personal relationships especially those working the graveyard shifts. Don’t get me wrong, we need these jobs and we can do them just as good or even better than other countries competing for the same but we have to put in place mechanisms that will address these social costs. Our Greatest Resource is still HUMAN CAPITAL!

“Government should focus, too, on (STEM) – science, technology, engineering and mathematics and the like. After all, we have a competitive advantage in these areas and no longer does the divide between the urban and rural exists, thanks to technology. Just a thought to share with you my friend… Sincerely, Edu Manzano.”

I fully agree with the observations of Edu and have personally encountered these; after all, my wife’s sisters are working in BPOs in Cebu and they told me lots of horror stories on the verbal abuse call center agents get from insensitive people on the other line in another side of the world. Indeed, before something worse happens, we call upon the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to come up with programs to address or arrest these problems. If we have such programs for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), why not for those working in BPOs?

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. Avila’s columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.