This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 3, February 20-26, 2005
Feminist
activist, writer Ninotchka Rosca:
“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
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.
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. © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
RP Is Major Exporter of Sex Slaves
Bulatlat
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 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