PHILIPPINES
DavaoCity: next stop for trafficked children?
Mindanews.com
Non-governmental organizations advocating children’s rights are looking closely at entry points here following reports it is now becoming a destination for trafficked children.
DavaoCity: next stop for trafficked children?
Non-governmental organizations advocating children’s rights are looking closely at entry points here following reports it is now becoming a destination for trafficked children.
Bernardo Mondragon, coordinator of the Anti-Child Trafficking Davao-Agusan Area Kalitawhan Network, said that after Manila and Cebu, Davao is the third most developed city in the country and “with urbanization comes trafficking."
"I'm looking at it from an economic point of view, the law of supply and demand and there's a growing demand for urbanized DavaoCity," he said.
Mondragon said that during a seminar of Philippine National Police (PNP) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in TaclobanCity earlier this year, a participant brought up the issue of DavaoCity as a destination point of victims coming from Tacloban and Leyte. "And he only said that because he knows I'm from Davao," he said.
But Mondragon said they cannot as yet verify the report because they have not interviewed any prostituted women coming from Visayas. "Maybe we can visit the various entertainment clubs in the city to see if they have a Waray accent," he said.
He said DavaoCity has all the factors, especially its being highly urbanized. “Poor children from rural areas can be duped by the bright lights and the tall buildings,” he said.
Although the city has enough laws protecting women and children, the implementation of these laws seems to be lacking. "The implementation is not good, there are still ongoing violations," he said.
Belindo Aguilar, executive director of Amaya Lay Foundation, Inc., an international network working against trafficking, said DavaoCity is growing as an urban area “and so will the problem of trafficking.”
He said as the area becomes more urbanized, the need for more laborers arises, migration increases which constricts the job market, and unemployment and poverty force some women into prostitution.
Aguilar said they already identified DavaoCity as among the transit points of trafficked children and women, along with Zamboanga, General Santos, and Butuan, with Sasa port as the main point of exit.
"That's why some of the NGOs go to Sasa port and look for children tagging along with adults and they immediately verify their relationship," he said.