New travel requirements unconstitutional

Article III, Section 6 of the Philippine Constitution reads: “The liberty of abode and of changing the same within the limits prescribed by law shall not be impaired except upon lawful order of the court. Neither shall the right to travel be impaired except in the interest of national security, public safety, or public health, as may be provided by law.”

I quote this constitutional provision in light of new travel requirements, mainly on first-time travelers, set to be imposed starting September 3 by the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking. In addition to passports, visas (if needed), boarding passes and confirmed return tickets, target travelers will be made to present the following:

For self-funded travelers, proof of accommodation, financial capacity or source of income, and proof of employment. If relative-sponsored, original birth or marriage certificate, copy of sponsor’s passport, valid work visa or residence permit, overseas employment certificate if the sponsor is an OFW.

For non-relative or legal or juridical entity sponsored travelers, a duly-notarized affidavit of support and guarantee, as well as documents establishing the relationship of traveler and sponsor and purpose of the trip. OFWs departing for the first time, clearances from DMW, valid employment visa, work permit, employment contract.

All of these money-spending, energy-sapping, and time-consuming additional requirements just to ferret out traffickers or trafficked people. But not everybody is a trafficker or a trafficked person. So why make everybody a suspect by imposing such sweeping regulations for them to prove their innocence?

The presumption of innocence has not been stricken off the Philippine Constitution. It is still there in Article III, Section 14 (2). So why are the majority of travelers being made to prove they are not traffickers or trafficked people in violation of their constitutional rights? Since when is a mere inter-agency council more powerful that the Constitution?

If human trafficking has become a very big problem for the Philippines, maybe it is because the people tasked to address it are not doing their jobs. Why take it out on the Filipino public who, in the first place, are being taxed through their noses just to be served by those in government? Is it too much to ask for a good job in return?

Government has been splurging on intelligence funds as if they were going out of style. Why not use those tens of millions in intelligence funds work for real intelligence and sniff out the traffickers and trafficked people. Or are the new travel impositions a new source of easy money for those with no access to intelligence funds so everybody will be happy?

Our military and uniformed personnel are already having the best of both worlds with higher pay and retirement and pension benefits for which they contribute not a single God-forsaken centavo. Why not throw their full might against the dreaded human trafficking problem instead of burdening the innocent with having to prove their innocence.

Frankly, to me, these new travel requirements are just another manifestation of a lazy bureaucracy wanting a way out of doing its job. What a topsy-turvy world it is that I have to prove to somebody behind the counter that I am not a trafficker or a trafficked person because someone down the line of civil service is not in step with expectations.