Child Prostitution
March 1, 2009The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
Republic of the Philippines [ Country-by-Country Reports ]
The Republic of the
CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in
U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs
INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children living on the streets engage in informal labor activities such as scavenging or begging. Children are also engaged in domestic service and are involved in the commercial sex industry, including the use of children in the production of pornography and the exploitation of children by sex tourists. Children are reportedly trafficked internally for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and labor.
Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – The Virlanie Foundation, a local child protection NGO, estimated that there were at least 20 thousand child prostitutes in the country, most in the Metro Manila area. Other NGOs estimated that as many as 100 thousand children were involved in the commercial sex industry. Most of these children were girls, and nearly all had dropped out of school. These children come from very poor families with unemployed or irregularly employed parents.
The Virlanie Foundation offered housing, training, and counseling services to child prostitutes. An ILO program resulted in more than six thousand children being removed or prevented from engaging in the worst forms of child labor, including the commercial sex industry
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2005
[84] The Committee expresses its grave concern about the sexual exploitation of children, including growing child prostitution, and the reported cases of child pornography in the State party. The Committee notes with concern that the provisions of the Special Protection of Children against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act (Republic Act No. 7610) are mainly related to child prostitution and do not adequately protect victims of other forms of sexual exploitation. Furthermore, the Committee notes with concern that the minimum age of sexual consent is not clearly enough established in the State party’s domestic legislation and that the Revised Penal Code (Republic Act No. 3815) imposes maximum penalties for sexual offences when the victim is under 12 years of age but imposes lower penalties for sexual offenses against minors over 12 years of age.
[85] The Committee welcomes the adoption of, in 2003, the new Anti-Trafficking Law (Republic Act 9208) and other measures taken by the State party in the areas of prevention of trafficking and protection of victims, such as the establishment of Anti-Illegal Recruitment Coordination Councils, the Trade Union Child Labor Advocate (TUCLAS) initiative and the establishment of an Executive Council to suppress trafficking in person particularly women and children. But the Committee is gravely concerned about trafficked Filipino children both within the country and across borders. The Committee expresses its concern about existing risk factors contributing to trafficking activities, such as persisting poverty, temporary overseas migration, growing sex tourism and weak law enforcement in the State party.
Fr. Shay Cullen » A Brave and Loving Woman
Josie Magano is one of the bravest Filipino women I ever met. One day she came asking help to rescue her teenage daughter from the clutches of a Danish sex tour operator who owned a hotel in Baloy Beach in Olongapo City.
Halfway houses at ports protect sex trade victims
A female recruiter, who promised Ana a job as a storekeeper in Cavite, flew her from her home province of Bukidnon to Manila in January 2006. From there, she was brought to Cavite and forced to work as a guest relations officer (GRO) in a bar and, eventually, as a prostitute. With three other girls—all minors—Ana was made to work from 4 p.m. till past midnight. If the girls refused to cooperate, “Steve,” a nephew of the bar owner, would beat them or douse them with water. - htcp
Ghana: Rescuing the Child Prostitute, Whose Responsibility?
allafrica.com/stories/200711051563.html
RESEARCH FINDINGS - In the Philippines, UNICEF estimated that there are 60,000 child prostitutes and many of the 200 brothels in the notorious Angeles City offer children for sex.
Cops told to probe alleged child prostitution in Digos city
Last week, a nine-year old student at a public school here went missing for three days. When the girl resurfaced, she said she was recruited into prostitution by a gang operating at the Rizal Park, a stone’s throw from the city hall and the police station.
The tape showed hundreds of children as young as 5 locked in cages stacked a half-dozen high. Most were child prostitutes, caught in that country’s rampant sex tourism trade. Broadcast on CNN, it highlighted an issue the world couldn’t ignore, and hit hardest in North America, where many of the children’s regular customers live.
More than 60,000 Filipino girls work as child prostitutes. They are recruited by pimps in rural areas of the country from unsuspecting, desperately poor families who send their daughters to the city to earn extra money. “It’s everyone from the sleazy to the elite,” Father Shay says of the tourists who frequent child brothels. “All levels of society and every nationality.” Girls are sold in the brothels and on the streets for as little as $25 and can see as many as 10 customers a day. If they don’t make enough money, they are beaten.
Fighting The Child Sex Trade - One priest’s battle to protect exploited kids
Pia Agustin Corvera became a prostitute at the age of 9. An aunt who raised her in a Manila slum rented her to foreign men with Pia receiving 120 pesos–$3–for each encounter. After three years, according to a social worker’s report, she was sold to a visiting German pedophile. Today, the morose 16-year-old with a ravaged psyche and an uneasy smile has found refuge here in a therapeutic community for child victims of sexual abuse run by a 57-year-old Irish priest, the Rev. Shay Cullen. The tiny Filipino girl is slowly learning to trust again, and while understandably shy, she describes with brutal simplicity the sum of her experiences. Says Pia: “I felt like garbage.”
A Filipino girl, at the tender age of three, was forced to perform oral sex on strangers. What’s worse is that her pimp is her own mother, a drug addict. The girl’s plight is shocking but not unique, said Dr Jean D’Cunha from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (Unifem). Children of increasingly young ages are being forced into prostitution to fuel the billion-dollar tourism trade in child sex, said international experts on prostitution and human trafficking at a conference here. Add the growing number of similarly victimised young women, and the experts believe that ‘millions are being trafficked worldwide for the sex trade.
The path to recovery of Isabel and Irene
www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=51822
The flight schedule was pinned up on the wall. The pimps arrived and began to argue with the police claiming that they had an understanding with the police chief. But the police we had with us were from a different station. While they were busy discussing the payoff, the Preda team went into the house with the mother and found Isabel. They got her out into the van and sped away before anyone could stop them. It was clear that there would be no investigation and no arrests. If only we could have rescued all the girls it would have been a great day’s work but unfortunately it was impossible. The girls were teenagers and one of then had a baby.
Two men convicted of sex tourism ordered to pay victims in RP
A man convicted of traveling to the
Sex tourism is big money for pimps and politicians
To be left homeless and abandoned at 13 years old with a younger brother to provide for was too much for Angelina. Hungry and hopeless, begging food in a public park and nowhere to go, she found hope and happiness in the offer of two women job recruiters.
Wising Up On Sexual Trafficking Of Women And Children [DOC]
[scroll down] Cebu is considered as one of the top five areas for child prostitution and sex tourism.
The prevalence of human trafficking
According to him, Cebu is among the top five areas in the country where child prostitution and sex tourism are prevalent because it is the destination of international and domestic trafficking of kids ages 11 to 17 from nearby provinces of Samar, Leyte, Bohol, and
The End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes said that the number of commercially and sexually exploited children in the country is increasing. The Philippine Plan of Action estimated that there are between 60,000 to 75,000 children in the
Child prostitution in Cebu alarming — ILO
Most of these children aged 11 to 17 are classified as “freelancers,” or doing their trade while they roam the city streets. The study may not be extensive as it should have been, but the ILO-IPECL said this should be enough to be alarmed and to do something about child prostitution.
ECPAT: Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for Action [DOC]
www.ecpat.net/eng/Ecpat_inter/publication/other/english/Doc_page/ecpat_5th_a4a_2001_full.doc
[B] COUNTRY UPDATES – PHILIPPINES– The Philippines officially adopted its National Plan of Action titled the Framework for Action against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children 2000-2005 in November 2000. The Philippine Government also produced a long-term “Philippine Plan of Action for Children (PPAC): the Filipino Children 2000 and Beyond” where commercial sexual exploitation is recognized as an area where priority attention and action are required.
Report by Special Rapporteur [DOC]
[61] Awareness about sexual exploitation of children is high and the Government has introduced a series of policy and legislative measures since the early 1990s to address the issues. The legislative framework to protect children is comprehensive and certain acts have been revised with the protection of children in mind. In particular, the Anti-Trafficking in Children Act is currently in its fifth draft and includes provisions such as the protection of the trafficked child from criminal liability, appropriate training for persons who work with child victims/survivors and the penalization of those facilitating the trafficking. However, certain realities remain to be addressed, including that children can still find themselves imprisoned following their “rescue” from brothels and other exploitative environments, and prosecutions against often-wealthy exploiters continue to fail through inadequate legal procedures.
CHILD PROSTITUTION IS A KIN OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY - The
Cultural Perspective On Child Prostitution In The Far East
In the Philippines, the practice of selling children into prostitution is a long and well-established trade. While there are laws forbidding the practice, there are no enforcement measures to prevent the tragedy. Part of this pathology comes from the ideology that children are not people, but property.
Family And Friends Push Children Into Prostitution
Recruiters often justify getting children into the sex trade by saying that they are “helping” them and their families. Recruiters can be immediate family members or people known to family and friends. The fight against child prostitution is hampered by the victims’ reluctance to testify and the inexperience of prosecutors.
Philippines-Children: Scourge Of Child Prostitution
Sharon, a 13 years-old schoolgirl was forever cutting classes at her village school and, fearful of her parents wrath, took a bus from her village and headed for the big city - Manila. She wound up in
Free Trade and Child Prostitution in the Philippines
Jemma was only a child. 14 years old . when I first saw her she was dressed in a bikini , had a name tag attached and was gyrating on the stage in a sleazy bar, in Angeles City, a hundred kilometers north of Manila ,Philippines.
The Modern Scourge of Sex Slavery
[3rd photo caption] Filipino children, victims of child prostitution, wait to testify before Philippine Congressional committee on child prostitution and human rights, as 200 street children rallied, in a downpour outside, in support.
Virlanie Foundation
www.virlanie.org/article_lft.php3?id_rubrique=84&lang=en
ABOUT VFI - HISTORY 1998 - Establishment of Ma Maison for children aged 14 years and above who have suffered abuse, child prostitutes or victims of physical maltreatment.
Street Children in the Philippines
Besides street children, there is child prostitution in
International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE)
CHILD LABOR RAMPANT IN CEBU, DOLE SAYS - Although DOLE did not give figures on how many children are working in Cebu, it is considered as among the “hot spots” for child prostitution where a number of kids are found working in pyrotechnics, prostitution, domestic labor, mining and quarrying, deep-sea fishing, and sugar cane plantations.
THE SCOPE AND NATURE OF THE PROBLEM IN THE EAP REGION - Most sexual exploitation of children is by local men. In the Philippines, for example, it is thought that nine out of ten customers of child prostitutes are Filipinos.
Previous Comments
All comments are moderated. Your comments will not appear here unless approved by the blog owner. Thank you.
Add a comment
For a recently updated version of all of this, check out http://gvnet.com/childprostitution/Philippines.htm
Posted by Prof Patt at July 7, 2011, 10:39 pm