Facing reality

American Ambassador at large John Miller, commissioned to work on human trafficking in the United States and all over the world, believes that the selling of people into modern day slavery has become one of the prime priority problems of the 21st century.

In the year 2004 more than 800,000 people were transported from country to country, for a price. In Japan alone, for instance, there were 80,000 Filipino entertainers, whose real job was sexual prostitution.

And many more are being sold for money internally, within the boundaries of each nation. In the Philippines, for instance, a young graduate student in one of our large universities earned her Master’s Degree by making a study of prostitution within the student body of the University!

The school had a reasonably large student population of tribal natives. The researcher discovered that these poor indigenous people would surface as prostitutes in the clubs only when they had to pay their tuition, or pay for their graduation, or for some special event. They were innocent girls, good at heart, trying to get a college education.

The University was really trying to move them out of their primitive form of life into the main stream of Philippine society, but in the process the poor natives were falling into the hands of the traffickers. The University granted the M.A. to the researcher, realizing that they had a problem. But they had no immediate solution for it. They could not afford to give scholarships to all the tribal natives.

Personally, I met a student in fourth year college who was a call girl. She was not married, but she had a child, three years old. She said; "I only go to men when I need the money. I want to graduate and get a degree, so that I can get out of this sex trade. But I have to support my little girl!"

Meeting in the US Embassy with a small group of Non Government Organizations who are trying to stop human trafficking, Ambassador Miller was distressed at the lack of convictions for this crime, in the Philippines. We have beautiful laws, but no convictions.

The first conviction came in Zamboanga, recently, after a trial of only four months. The two convicted criminals were sentenced to life imprisonment. To the Ambassador, this meant that there was real hope of effective action. It could be done. But why only one conviction after all these years?

The Filipino workers answered this slowly, hesitantly, gently, because they did not want to say anything derogatory about their own country. But each of them suggested that some Judges, and some Prosecutors, can be bought.

The lawyers who were present admitted this, but they said: "Even if everyone is honest, the backlog of cases – of equal importance – is so great! The most we can ask for is one session, twice a month. So the ordinary trial runs on for three or four years!"

And the longer the delay, the easier it is for the human traffickers. After a year, two years, three . . . . . . the victims give up. The case dies a natural death, because there is no one left to testify.

Then some of the Filipinos present told the Ambassador what they felt was the heart of the problem. It was lack of honesty. Lack of integrity. The police are of no help. They are the problem. They are involved in the sex trade. One prostitute testified very clearly that she was taken from the brothel where she worked, to a motel. There she was gang raped by ten policemen.

The military are no help. During martial law one girl who was raped, and could not get justice anywhere, wrote a book. She documented 150 girls and young women who had been raped by the military. And not one military man was punished.

The politicians are no help. This became painfully obvious when Japan wanted to tighten its immigration laws, to stop the entrance of Filipina prostitutes into Japan, and our politicians objected! They accused the Japanese of being anti-Filipino, and suggested that the Japanese should not be allowed to do business in the Philippines. Then a movement started to open "Entertainment Schools", so that the Filipina prostitutes could meet the new laws of Japan.

These were the two deadly causes of rampant trafficking in the Philippines: the agonizing poverty of our people, and the lack of honesty in our officials. Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales believes that 72.5 percent of our people are now living below the poverty line.

This causes parents to surrender their children to the sex trade – they need the money. Our young girls go into the industry, reluctantly, so that their families will survive.

The lack of integrity in our police, in our military, in our politicians, and the ghastly delay of our courts, combine with poverty to make this problem a devastating national evil.

But there is hope! Ambassador Miller, who has studied this problem all over the world, sees a strong change rising. A change for the better. In the year 2004 there were 3000 convictions of human traffickers, world wide. Hundreds of shelters are springing up, to harbor and protect the victims. In the last year 39 countries have passed new laws on human trafficking. The world is waking up to the deadliness of this evil: selling people for money.

To me, the strong quiet action of the United States is the best thing that has happened to us in years. The Americans have been pilloried for the war in Vietnam, for the invasion of Iraq, for their world campaign against terrorists. This is because bad news sells more newspapers, and gives a greater audience on radio and TV. Right now, the United States is trying – really trying – to protect those most in need: the poor children and young people who have been trapped in modern slavery.

They are not earning anything from this. It is a straight, honest effort to help those most in need: the poor, the powerless, the voiceless, the helpless, the oppressed. The USAID has been criticized for other things that they have done. But they can not be criticized for this. It is a sign. The world is changing.

And the Philippines is changing! All our big changes have started in the hearts of our common people. The seething resentment against the oppression of Spain boiled over into our Revolution 1896. The restless, universal resistance to martial law broke out into Edsa I – two million people pouring into the streets.

And there is an underground surge of intense feeling sweeping through our country right now. The common man is fed up with the quarrelling, greedy politicians, he is fed up with selfish dishonesty; he is fed up with those who have money and power buying and selling the poor. It shows in the charismatic movements, convinced that the people have to do it themselves, and never mind the leaders.

The vast majority of Filipinos are good, honest, prayerful people. They love their families. They love their children. They have had enough of human trafficking.

Ambassador John Miller sees hope for the Philippines in that one Zamboanga conviction. He sees hope all over the world. And that vision is realistic. The world is changing, from the ground up. And it is changing for the better!