Gates to help stop human trafficking

It was a life-changing experience for me to see up close the most famous and most powerful men and women here and abroad during my long years of coverage at the Malacañang Palace. But one of the most unforgettable personalities I had the opportunity to see up close, and even shook hands with, was with the world’s wealthiest man, William H. "Bill" Gates. I met Mr.Gates, the founder and owner of Microsoft Corp., for at least three times in my lifetime. But trust me, he does not even know that I exist. The only proofs I have are the photographs of those encounters I posed with Mr.Gates during those rare times.

My initial face-to-face meeting with Mr. Gates was during the coverage of the maiden summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 1993 which was hosted by then US President William "Bill" Clinton in Seattle, Washington. Former President Fidel V. Ramos attended that APEC gab and part of his official itineraries in that US trip was a visit to the Microsoft Company headquarters in Redmond, Washington, located 13 miles from Seattle.

The second time I met Mr. Gates was during the state visit to Washington D.C. by deposed President Joseph Estrada. While there, Estrada also made a side trip to Redmond to meet with Gates at his Microsoft kingdom. And the last encounter I had with Gates was during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s trip to Beijing at the sidelines of the APEC summit in 2001 when she witnessed with him the signing of an agreement between Philippine government officials and Microsoft executives on an important project of his company in the country.

My recollections of Mr. Gates flashed back following the latter’s announcement last week about personal plans to withdraw from his day-to-day duties as chairman of Microsoft and turn the reins of power to his chief executive Steve Ballmer. At age 50, he has remained in the No.1 rank of Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s richest men. He has an estimated personal wealth of about $50 billion.

Gates announced his plans to gradually withdraw from Microsoft’s daily operations over the next two years so that he can focus his attention on the charitable foundations he put up. Blessed with great wealth, he said, it has also brought him great responsibilities to share his fortune to charity. And he is doing this through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He set up this foundation in 2000 to provide assistance in global health and education-related projects. The foundation is now the largest philanthropy organization, with assets reaching as much as $29.1 billion. Even while out of Microsoft operations, Gates will remain, though, as chairman of the company.

The Philippines is one of the beneficiaries of Gates’ Microsoft Company’s latest corporate socio-civic project involving $1 million worth of grants to various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that will provide computer skills as a means to protect Filipinos from the nefarious activities of international human trafficking syndicates.

Microsoft announced last week it is contributing a total of $9.2 million this year to help labor-sending Asian countries like the Philippines battle human trafficking, cyber crimes, child exploitation and improve computer skills for better chances of employment and getting higher-paid jobs.

The country got this special assistance from Microsoft following the recent US State Department’s raising one notch higher in the tiers of countries under close watch for human trafficking cases because they noted the Philippine government’s significant efforts to clamp down against human trafficking incidents. The Philippines got this fitting upgrade out of the watch list as a major source of victims of human traffickers from the US State Department while the country observed the third anniversary last month of the signing of Republic Act 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

Trafficking in persons is not a new phenomenon but is a rapidly growing global problem and menace for many of the labor-sending countries like the Philippines. Next to money laundering, illegal drugs and guns, trafficking in persons has become one of the most lucrative underground businesses across the globe.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the number of human trafficking incidents worldwide has reached as much as 1.2 million as of 2003 official record. In Southeast Asia, the estimated number of victims trafficked across borders have reached 225,000.

The campaign against this global menace of the Philippine government received much boost from Microsoft out of its corporate social responsibility reach-out programs. Microsoft, which began operations here in country in 1995, has chosen to support this kind of program to combat human trafficking in the Philippines in partnership with the Visayan Forum Foundation Inc. which they dubbed as STEP-UP. The acronym stood for Stop Trafficking and Exploitation of People through Unlimited Potential.

Microsoft Philippines launched last month STEP-UP with an initial P10 million funding (P9 million in cash and P1 million in software and curriculum) and will infuse it to 10 pre-selected local NGOs through the Visayan Forum. This program seeks to provide information and technology (IT) skills training to underprivileged Filipino youths and adults to make them less vulnerable and susceptible to importuning by illegal recruiters and other kind of human trafficking syndicates.

Lack of economic opportunities for people, especially in far-flung and impoverished provinces, are the favorite hunting grounds for illegal recruiters and human traffickers. Recruiters usually prey on young women and children, usually school drop-outs looking for jobs. These jobseekers flock to Metro Manila and other urban centers on the false notion they can easily get jobs.

The illegal recruiters capitalize on the hopes and dreams for better lives by desperate women and youths trying to find safe and decent jobs in the cities. This is why, many of these jobseekers are willing to take risks such as going abroad for a promise of dollar-paying jobs. Young women are easily lured to work as domestic helpers which do not require college diplomas. Many of the sob stories of our unskilled overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) relate how they were misled by illegal recruiters into working for much lesser pay under abusive employers, or worse, for some Filipinas who end up working as prostitutes.

The STEP-UP is just one of the many projects that Microsoft Philippines does for the country as a corporate citizen and this American software giant leads by example.

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