SEEKS SOURCE OF SEX TOURISM / US ENVOY APOLOGIZES, ASKS PHL TO REFINE
ANTI-TRAFFICKING LAWS
MANILA,
OCTOBER 8,
2011 (STAR) By Delon Porcalla - Malacañang wants to know
from US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. (photo) the source of his information
when he revealed that 40 percent of male foreigners fly to Manila primarily for
sex tourism.
"Apparently, he claims to have some basis. That's the reason why he issued
such a statement. What we want to know is where that basis came from,"
presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told a press briefing yesterday.
Filing a diplomatic protest at this point would be premature, according to
him, because the Philippine government has to ascertain first the veracity of
the information that the American envoy got.
"It's already speculation at this point if we want to file something when we
don't even know yet the basis of the claim of Ambassador Thomas. So, we would
like to ask the good ambassador, again, the basis of his statement," Lacierda
said.
More than anything else, the Palace official said they were "more curious
than offended" with Thomas' surprising remarks, precisely the reason why "we
wanted to know and ask from them the basis for their statement."
"We will wait for the response of Ambassador Thomas," Lacierda said.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima denied the claim of Thomas that he
got his data from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
De Lima said it is not their duty to ask foreigners if they were sex
tourists.
"As far as DOJ is concerned, there are no such records. The DOJ does not
collect statistics on sex tourists. Because, in the first place, like Secretary
De Lima said, we don't go around asking them if they are sex tourists," Lacierda
said, quoting De Lima.
"So, there's no statistics to that effect and Secretary De Lima, in fact,
wrote a letter to Ambassador Thomas to ask the good ambassador the basis for his
claim," Lacierda said.
Nonetheless, they are leaving such matters to the Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA). "After receiving that particular explanation, we'll leave it with
the DFA to decide on the best course of action."
Thomas has rejected calls for him to apologize for his remarks that 40
percent of male tourists in the Philippines are only after sex with local women
and children.
"I'm not going to apologize. I will never apologize for trying to combat
child sex. I will never apologize for trying to combat children being forced to
labor. I will never apologize for trying to help children in Smokey Mountain,"
Thomas said in an interview in his Forbes Park residence in Makati City
recently.
He maintained that he based his assertion on records on the sex trade and
child trafficking culled by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents working with
the National Bureau of Investigation.
Thomas drew flak for his comments from some politicians, including Senate
President Juan Ponce Enrile, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Sen. Miriam Santiago.
US envoy apologizes for sex tourism story By Pia
Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star) Updated October 08, 2011 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. has apologized for his
remarks that 40 percent of male tourists visiting the Philippines come only for
sex tourism, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said yesterday.
Del Rosario said he received a text message from Thomas who expressed regret
over his statement at a forum last month that should not have been made without
supporting data.
"I am sending you a response expressing regret for my comments. I should not
have used the 40 percent statistics without the ability to back it up," Thomas
said. "I regret any harm that I may have caused."
Del Rosario received the message in Hanoi while attending the 7th Joint
Commission on Bilateral Cooperation between the Philippines and Vietnam.
He said Thomas has been working closely with the Philippine government in
addressing the challenge of human trafficking in the country.
Lawmakers challenged the data on sex tourism cited by Thomas and said the
American envoy should back up his statement with solid proof.
Thomas' statements were challenged by various sectors that included
Malacañang and the Department of Tourism.
Thomas, however, earlier said he would not apologize over his remark about
prostitution in the country and stressed he was only telling the truth when he
cited the statistics.
Thomas challenged critics to show what they should have done and their
efforts in stopping child prostitution and human trafficking in the country.
US embassy Press Attaché Bettina Malone on Sept. 28 said Thomas' statements
reflected US government estimates, based on the work of US officials working
with Philippine authorities to close clubs that cater to pedophiles.
Sources told The STAR that Thomas indicated the Philippine government was
well aware of the estimates and report but was "turning a blind eye."
Thomas said on Sept. 22 during a roundtable discussion on human trafficking
organized by the Supreme Court, the Philippine Judicial Academy in partnership
with the Court of Appeals and US Department of Justice Criminal Division, that
an estimated 40 percent of foreign men, including American nationals, visit the
country for sexual tourism.
Thomas said the US request is for the Philippines to refine and strengthen
the anti-trafficking law for more convictions and prosecute foreigners,
including Americans, involved.
Thomas said he asked President Aquino and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to
prosecute foreigners and Americans engaged in the illicit activity and cybersex
to the fullest extent of the law.
Although the US acknowledged an increased rate to 25 convictions in human
trafficking cases, Thomas said "I hope the law will be refined and
strengthened."
According to Thomas, the US provided over $6.6 million to the Philippines for
training in anti-human trafficking programs.
Thomas noted corruption allows those involved in human trafficking to
continue with impunity.
The Philippines welcomed the country's removal from the Tier 2 Watchlist in
the 2011 State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report released by the US
government last June.
The report released by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the
Philippines moved to Tier Two status, indicating progress has been made by the
Philippine government.
A Tier Two status removes the immediate threat of sanctions but does indicate
work needs to continue on this global challenge.
The report recognized the significant efforts taken by the Philippine
government to combat trafficking in persons, such as the almost 200-percent
increase in convictions of traffickers, including convictions for labor
trafficking.
The measures that the Philippines has implemented this year include
increasing efforts to identify trafficking victims in destination countries and
pursuing criminal investigation and prosecution of their traffickers, increasing
victim shelter resources to be able to assist more victims of human trafficking,
and continued assessment and improving methods to address domestic and
international labor trafficking.
The report also cited the notable efforts by the Philippine government to
address trafficking-related corruption, and the numerous measures and policies
to improve institutional responses to human trafficking.
RELATED NEWS FROM CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
ONLINE
One priest's crusade against sex tourism in the
Philippines By By Donald Kirk | Christian Science Monitor – Thu, 18
Aug, 2011
[Rev. Shay Cullen serves the people of The Philippines and is a
co-founder of PREDA.org - a nonprofit
dedicated to ending the abuse of children.]
Rev. Shay Cullen's campaign against sex tourism epitomizes faltering efforts
to combat the problem in the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia.
From his sprawling establishment overlooking Subic Bay, the Rev. Shay Cullen
surveys a city that seems almost as subverted by the trafficking of women, many
under age, as it was before the US shut down its naval base here nearly 20 years
ago.
The sailors who once flooded the streets on shore leave are no longer here,
except on brief visits during military exercises, but the city has never lived
down the reputation it got for the sex trade that flourished around what was
America's biggest Naval base outside the US.
"Sex tourism is unchecked and trafficking is rampant," says Mr. Cullen, a
Columban priest from Ireland who's been crusading since 1974 against what he
sees as a "mafia-like" conspiracy by foreign men and Filipinos to exploit
under-age victims. "The local government supports the sex industry, the
prosecutors are mostly corrupt, and the judges too."
Cullen seems like a latter-day Don Quixote tilting at windmills as he leads
often fruitless manhunts for traffickers among the foreigners who come to this
once-thriving base city 50 miles northwest of Manila.
His crusade epitomizes faltering efforts in the Philippines and throughout
Southeast Asia to combat the trafficking of women, many in their teens, almost
all from poor families living in squalor amid rising prices and fewer jobs. If
the challenge appears hopeless, it's not for lack of effort on the part of
Cullen and others – dedicated, if nothing else, to raising awareness of the
problem.
"We have a great deal of admiration for what they do," says Andrey Sawchenko,
director in the Philippines for the International Justice Mission, talking about
the organization Cullen helped found, PREDA, an acronym for People's Recovery
Empowerment Development Assistance. "It matters hugely to the women and girls
they help. Our experience has been that PREDA has been really effective."
Spurring prosecution Mr. Sawchenko sees PREDA as having played a leading role
in spurring on prosecution of cases of trafficking. As evidence, he cites
removal of the Philippines last month from the State Department's "watch list"
of countries that are doing little or nothing about it.
The Philippines now has a "tier two" rating – recognition that at least it's
attempting to combat the problem – while Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia remain
on the watch list. The Philippines got "the promotion," as officials sometimes
call it, after prosecutors won 29 convictions against traffickers in a 12-month
period after having had only 30 convictions in the previous five years from 2005
to 2010, none the result of PREDA's activities.
Khrisna Avila, a consultant with the Inter-Agency Council Against
Trafficking, set up by the Department of Justice to combat the problem,
acknowledges, however, that nearly 1,200 cases are still pending. The State
Department's latest country-by-country report on trafficking worldwide is
severely critical despite the upgrade.
"Widespread corruption and an inefficient judicial system continue to pose
very serious challenges to the successful prosecution of trafficking cases,"
says the report. "Law enforcement officials' complicity in human trafficking
remains a pervasive problem in the Philippines, and corruption at all levels of
government enables traffickers to prosper."
"We have the laws, we have the rules and regulations," says Josephine
Alforque, advocacy officer with the local office of the nongovernmental End
Child Prostitution and Child Trafficking," based in Thailand. She cites an
antitrafficking act passed eight years ago but complains, "There are no NGOs on
the Inter-Agency Council."
The problem, says Ms. Alforque, is worsened by the rapid proliferation of
electronic devices for organizing criminal syndicates. "Technology has added to
the tools in exploitation of children," she says. "Yes, there are foreign men
involved, but there are a lot of local men, too."
Cullen's investigations of abuses by foreign men, from military veterans to
tourists and retirees, extend inland to the one-time US base town of Angeles
City. On the streets and alleys outside the former Clark Air Base, which closed
in 1991 after the eruption of nearby Mount Pinatubo, bars and shops catering to
foreigners flourish, as in the old days.
The fact is, however, the sex trade in Angeles never stopped. It seems to
have never even slowed down.
Lured by the promise of jobs Cullen cites a raid on a nightclub in Angeles
run by a man described by police as "an Irish fugitive." Dozens of women said
they had been lured to Angeles after having been told they would find jobs in
factories, offices or restaurants, according to a police report, but instead
were forced to become sex workers.
Despite frustrations, Cullen is proud of the program he runs for victims whom
he and his staff claim to have rescued from sexual exploitation.
"We have two homes for victims, 27 victims of abuse by their fathers and
relatives, 18 saved from sex clubs," Cullen says. They're "reintegrated when
recovered" – and eligible for financial aid for 18 months.
Some foreigners say Cullen is looking for publicity and donations rather than
real solutions to a festering problem. One retired US Air Force master sergeant,
Alan Dale Edmonds, has been battling Cullen's claims in court for years.
"I have been consistently exposing them," says Mr. Edmonds. "Obviously," he
goes on, the point for PREDA is "to garner support and rake in money."
Meanwhile, Cullen appears to revel in the acclaim that he's whipped up for
his program. Amid repeated attacks by Edmonds and other foreign retirees, Cullen
boasts he's twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize – recognition that he
proudly advertises on banners posted on the wall at the base of the drive up to
his establishment.
Regardless of whether Cullen is successful in court, many say he's at least
drawn attention to the issue.
"There is a big improvement," says Danny Abunalen, with the Visayan Forum
Foundation, which focuses on immigration and trafficking. "Foreigners come into
the country for young women. Most of our cases are actually foreigners."
Critics agree with the State Department that the problem of trafficking in
the Philippines is not as bad as when sailors on leave flooded the bars – but
say Cullen's influence has nothing to do with it.
"There is not as much money as there was in the heyday of the bases," says
Edmonds. "There were many more incidents then because women often offered their
children in an attempt to get them adopted, [and get them] a better home."
Yes, he adds, "because of the bad apples that any military is stuck with,
there were those who took advantage quite often of the poor and the children."
Cullen meanwhile has a ready explanation for why it's difficult to get
convictions for foreign club operators offering under-age girls. The government
believes sex charges against foreigners are "bad for tourism," he says.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved
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HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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