Human trafficking doesn’t just produce victims

Part 1

A bar girl’s journey

In her new job as a bar dancer in Cebu City , 15-year-old Victoria* was valuable: she was a virgin.

A recruiter had brought her there four months earlier with nine other girls in October 2007 with the promise of a job as a tour guide.

Victoria had run away from home in Rizal province, unable to deal with a stepfather who harrassed her with sexual advances and a mother who didn’t believe her.

Her dance routine was one part of the job. She had to sit and entertain customers, usually drunk men who groped her in the dark.

The “mama sang” or pimp later decided to set her up with a foreigner.

“Niana ang mama sang nga wala sila’y kwarta makuha nako kung dili ko i-out sa customers. So nangita sila ug paagi nga naay foreigner gyud nga mangitag virgin para bayaran sila ug dagko,” said Victoria, who has since left the flesh trade.

(At one time, mama sang told me that they can’t earn money from me if the customers don’t take me out. So they found a foreigner who was looking for virgin girls so that they could collect more.)

A few days before the date, the bar was raided by the police.

Getting justice 

Victoria was lucky. She was rescued from one of the oldest, most pernicious trades in the world – human trafficking.

Statistics on prostitution vary but the International Justice Mission (IJM), a human rights agency devoted to relief and rescue for victims of slavery and sexual exploitation, estimates that 524 women and children were rescued from sex-trafficking in Metro Cebu from 2004 to March of 2013.

Some of them were rescued in 73 law enforcement operations made with IJM assistance from June 2007, when IJM started in the Philippines, to March this year.

One of 210 suspects charged with violating Republic Act (RA) 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act in the same period, was “Daddy” the recruiter of Victoria.

“Nalipay ko kay nakakuha ko ug justice sa iyang gibuhat nga pag-ilad nako. At least ba maka-learn pud siya unsay mga resulta sa mga sayop nga iyang gibuhat,” said Victoria in an interview.

(I was happy to get justice for how he deceived me about the job in the city. At least he will learn the consequences of his action.)

RA 10364 or the Expanded Anti-Human Trafficking Act was signed into law February this year. It provides greater security and protection for trafficking victims as well as allowing for a more effective prosecution of traffickers.

After the bar raid in February 2008, Victoria was placed with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) where they helped her heal from her physical and emotional ordeal.

Moving on

Today Victoria thinks less of revenge and more of how to help other trafficking victims.

For almost five years, she’s been working a non-government organization (NGO) in Cebu whose project involves going to bars and entertainment establishments to meet trafficked women.

Her experience makes a useful bond.

“Kung mo-introduce ko sa akong self, moingon gyud ko dayun kung unsa ko sauna, nga parehas pud mi sauna. Maka-ingon ko nga naka-move on na gyud ko. Karon, motabang na pud ko sa uban,” she said.

(If I introduce myself to them, I always share my experience and say I used to be one of them. I can say that I have already moved on. Now, I want to help the others.)

Victoria said she knows what it’s like to work at night, then stay locked up in a house in the day, unable to step out without a guard and feeling you could never leave this life.
While she admits the NGO can’t immediately get trafficked women and minors out of their present circumstances, Victoria said she’s happy extending help. Her NGO helps women get free hygiene services, an offer that even pimps are willing to accept.

As long as you don’t mention anything about police, IJM, the NBI or other law enforcers, “okay ra ma sila”, said Victoria.

Asked if she has gone home to her family in Luzon, Victoria, the eldest of ten sibilngs, said this part was difficult to do.

“Dili pa nako kaya mobalik didto. Dili man gud nindot ang environment didto, lisod ang trabaho, nya dili kaayo makialam ang mga tao. Basin mabalik lang gihapon ko sa ako sitwasyon nga ma-traffic na pud,” she said.

(I still can’t go back there. The environment is not good, work is hard to get, and people are indifferent. I may find myself back in trouble.)

Empower victims

Her mission in Cebu, Victoria said, is to help educate and empower victims of trafficking.

“Ang pinakalabaw nako nga nakat-unan, hatagan gyud nako’g value akong kaugalingon. Nga ako, usa ka babae, usa ko ka tao, bililhon jud ko. Importante bitaw ko sa katilingban pud. Mao ni akong ganahan makat-unan nila,” she said.

(The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to give value to myself. That I am a woman, I am a person, and that I am valuable. I am also important in society. This is what I want others to realize.)

‘Victims too’

Do recruiters, bar owners, and prostitution den operators need rescue as well?

The IJM says their focus is on trafficking victims.

“We have no program to assist (traffickers). What we hope will assist them is information about other traffickers who have gone to jail. We hope that that will assist them in reassessing,” said IJM-Philippine National Director and lawyer Andrey Sawchenko.

Without forgetting the dignity of persons, Sawchenko said it was important to note that traffikcers commit violence and take advantage of others.

He said traffickers are not as receptive to programs and interventions by IJM.

“Our service to traffickers, primarily, is to make them see that law enforcement activities would be distributed broadly and that it could be them next (apprehended) so they should stop,” Sawchenko said.

“The person who can stop trafficking is not actually the law enforcer, although the law enforcer has a lot to do about it. It’s certainly not the victim, it’s not the NGO. It’s really the traffickers who have to decide themselves to stop trafficking,” Sawchenko said.

Some who survive, like Victoria, still hope for more than a full stop.

“Sa mga traffickers, kahibalo ko nga usa sad sila ka biktima. Unta, hunahunaon nila nga biktima na sila, dili na sila mamiktima,” Victoria said.

“I hope nga mahimo pud sila nga usa ka advocate (against trafficking).”

(I know that traffickers are also victims. I hope they realize this and that therefore they shouldn’t victimize others. I hope they become advocates too against trafficking.)

* For this story, CDN agreed not to use the real name of the woman interviewed to protect her privacy.