Feminist activist, writer Ninotchka Rosca:
RP Is Major Exporter of Sex Slaves

“The sex trade and trafficking of women and children is tantamount to virtual slavery, an act of violence and a grave violation of the fundamental tenets of human rights and the guarantees enshrined in the UN Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” – Ninotchka Rosca

By Edwin C. Mercurio
Bulatlat

TORONTO, Canada - The Philippine government’s labor-export policy as well as international market forces are contributing to the massive global sex trade and modern-day slavery of Filipino women and children, the international spokesperson of Gabriela’s Purple Rose Campaign against trafficking of women said.

Speaking at a forum organized by the Philippine Women’s Center of Ontario, Feb. 11 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) in downtown Toronto, Ms. Ninotchka Rosca, writer and book author, said the Philippines under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the major exporter of women as virtual sex slaves around the world.

The Purple Rose Campaign (PRC) is an international initiative by Gabriela, the largest multi-sectoral alliance of women’s organizations in the Philippines. It aims to raise awareness on the issue of sex trafficking; the brutal control exercised over women and children victims; the high incidence of violence and tremendous self-sacrifice women undergo to ensure the economic survival of their families in the Philippines.

The PRC, on the other hand, provides forums and initiates campaigns on behalf of persons and groups opposed to the sex trade and forced labor as a means of propping up the Philippines’ fragile economy.

In the Toronto forum, Ms. Rosca said that sex trafficking “is a systematic transport of humans across borders within and outside the country for the purpose of trade in sex.” Sex trafficking, she said, leads to prostitution of victims who are mostly women and children, with or without their knowledge. In most cases, force, intimidation and deception are used on the victims.”

200 countries

Citing studies, the expatriate writer said that Filipinos are exported as sex commodity to nearly 200 countries where “their fates are barely monitored by a weak and uncaring government.”

As cases of suicides as well as physical violence and sexual assaults committed against Filipino women overseas came to light, participants in the forum asked why past and current administrations allowed these grave human rights violations to persist.

Ms. Rosca, who lives in New York, explained that the Philippine labor export policy (adopted since the time of the late dictator Marcos up to Macapagal-Arroyo), government corruption, red tape and mishandling of the country’s economy, neo-colonialism, destruction of traditional cultures and the need to service the huge $60-B foreign debt have relegated the Philippines as a major source of trafficked women and children for the global sex trade.

Mafia, Asian gangs run global sex trade

International reports on slavery reveal that “the international sex trade run by the mafia and Asian gangs, now accounts for more than 50,000 women held in bondage in the U.S. alone,” Ms. Rosca said.

The Filipino writer’s revelations came on the heels of Canada’s own justice minister, Irwin Cotler, who in an interview with the Law Times of Canada  described the global sex trade as “the fastest growing international criminal industry in the world. It is a $10-billion industry, and the manner in which women are bonded and bartered is a real assault on morality.”

Ms. Rosca noted however that based on recent reports it is not only criminal elements that are involved in trafficking and export of women as sex slaves says but also governments.

“Governments are complicit,” she said. “In Europe, trafficked women are issued work visas. In Canada, a growing number of Filipino women come as mail-order brides. Under globalization, mail-order brides have become a major component of the international trafficking of women. In the United States, around 5,000 Filipino women enter as mail-order brides per year.”

In Australia, some 20,000 Filipino women came as mail-order brides – 22 have been murdered or disappeared since 1980. “In Japan, over 7,240 Filipino women come as entertainers/prostitutes. In South Korea, about 600 Filipino women have been recruited as entertainers, hostesses and receptionists in bars,” Ms. Rosca added.

U.S. tours

She also said that in the United States travel agencies offer sex tour packages in the Philippines – ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 that include introduction to women as “escorts.”

“Latest reports indicate that there are 150,000 Filipinos in Japan working as prostitutes. In addition, the export of young Filipino males to Japan’s gays and transvestite erotic market is a growing trend,” she said.

Prostitution in U.S. military bases

Ms. Rosca also revealed that in Okinawa, Japan, U.S. forces in “rest and recreation” respite employ 7,000 Filipino women as prostitutes for the exclusive use of the American troops.

Women who are infected by sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) and aids are immediately deported to the Philippines. The magnitude of STDs and aids contamination in RP is still unknown, the PRC spokesperson said.

Ms. Rosca also scored the Philippine government for its scandalous export of Filipino women. The Philippines, she said, has institutionalized sex trafficking under a host of “work” euphemisms such as “guest relations officer, cultural dancer, cultural entertainers, etc.

“The use of these terms have blurred the distinction between the use of women as cheap labor from their use as commodity, and certainly, from their use as market for non-essential products and services,” she said.

Asia’s only Christian country

According to Ms. Rosca, people from all corners of the world can’t accept why a woman president and supposedly the “only Christian” country in Asia would allow its women be exported as sex slaves.

“People I’ve met in my campaigns around the globe can’t believe what the Philippine government does to its own people and to its women,” she said. “The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has passed a law prohibiting those under 25 years of age from working as ‘entertainers’ to Japan. Thirty days after the passage of the law, DoLE granted permits to 30 women under 25 to work in Japan.”

“In the Philippines today, the whole system is so run down and oppressive that many Filipinos see the most viable recourse is to get out of the country,” Ms. Rosca said. “Some emigrate even with the knowledge that their destination is fraught with dangers in such volatile countries as Iraq. There is disgust, unexpressed anger and frustration with the whole system. Some who dare open up and speak out their growing disgust and frustrations are often met by the state’s instrument of repression and terror – the Philippine military and paramilitary forces.”

“The sex trade and trafficking of women and children is tantamount to virtual slavery, an act of violence and a grave violation of the fundamental tenets of human rights and the guarantees enshrined in the UN Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” she said.

On the other hand, Ms. Joy Sioson, chair of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario who hosted the forum, revealed that “600,000 Filipino women are trafficked globally for sexual purposes.”

The Purple Rose Campaign advances the analysis that organized prostitution and sex trafficking stem from globalization. For Asian women – and likely for women the world over – prostitution was not the world’s oldest profession. Women were priestesses, healers of the tribe, long before cash-for-sex traded hands.

For the Philippines, in particular, prostitution was the result of colonialism; large-scale prostitution and sex trafficking were the result of neo-colonialism and globalization.

Human rights activist, feminist

Ms. Rosca is also known as a human rights activist and feminist. She has authored six books. Her short story collections include Bitter Country and Monsoon Country; her two novels are State of War and Twice Blessed which earned the 1993 American Book Award for excellence in literature. Her books of non-fiction are The Fall of Marcos and her most recent, Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World - Portrait of a Revolutionary, has been well-received in the Philippines and abroad.

She is a two-time recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and a frequent contributor to MS Magazine, The Nation, Village Voice, Q and other U.S. and European periodicals.

An internationally-known activist for human rights, Ms. Rosca was a political prisoner under the Marcos regime in the Philippines. She was forced into exile when threatened with a second arrest.

Rosca has participated in several world forums and conferences for human rights. She serves on the board of the Survivors Committee, a network of former political prisoners and human rights activists. She has also been in leadership positions with Amnesty International and the PEN American Center.

Rosca was a founder and the first national chair of the GABRIELA, the preeminent women’s rights organization of the Philippines. Rosca has been designated as one of the 12 Asian American Women of Hope by the Bread and Roses Cultural Project. Bulatlat

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