Special Report
Scavenging by Day,
Prostitution by Night
Conclusion
Gone were the days
when vendors and porters of the Port of Batangas could give a decent life
to their family and send their children to college. Losing their main
source of livelihood after being ejected from their homes because of the
privatization of the Port, they turned to sex trade to earn a living -
making this a “family business.”
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
BATANGAS CITY -
Prostitution, known to be the world’s oldest profession, is new to the
people who once lived along the shores of the old Batangas Port in this
city, some 111 kms. south of Manila.
Amanda (note her real
name), 48, a mamasan (pimp) born and raised in Barangay Sta. Clara, a
village just beside the old Port of Batangas (part of this village has
been turned into the port’s expansion area completed in 1999). Her parents
were port vendors, she said, and life near the port then was strenuous yet
profitable. “Dati, basta mauido ka, kikita ka” (Before, if you were
aggressive in thinking of things to sell, you would earn.), she recalls.
As a teenager, Amanda
helped her parents earn a living by selling pork barbecue after school.
This was her family’s source of income when she started to raise a family
of her own. She said she used to earn at least P400 ($8.28 at today’s
exchange rate of $1=P48.305) a day then.
Following then
President Corazon Aquino’s Executive Order No. 431, a part of Barangay
Sta. Clara was demolished on June 27, 1994 to give way to the expansion,
modernization and privatization of the Batangas Port.
The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA)
opened two relocation centers: Barangay Balete (about seven kilometers
from the Batangas Port) and Barangay Sico (about 15 kilometers from the
Batangas Port). A study made by Dr. Emma Porio for the JBIC (Japan Bank
for International Cooperation) in 2000, “Demolition
and Resettlement of Sta. Clara Residents: Policy, Politics, and
Personalities in the Batangas Port Development Project,” revealed that
Balete had an unemployment rate of 53 percent while Sico had 43 percent.
Amanda’s family was
one of 192 families relocated in Sico, a vast and hilly relocation center
near a dump, overlooking the Batangas city jail. A trip to this area takes
at least an hour from the port. There are no factories or commercial
centers in the area. The row houses looked dilapidated and dim. It was
deafeningly quiet when Bulatlat visited the area on Jan. 18.
Dark days
Resettling at Sico
spelled doom for Amanda’s family. With no jobs available, Amanda said, her
family set up a small convenience store. In a year’s time, their small
business went bankrupt because of unpaid debts from neighbors and
relatives.
With no other means
of income, Amanda started trading girls for sex. “Bumaba uli ako sa
pier. Dun ako humawak ng mga babae,” (I went back to the pier and
peddled prostitutes.), she said.
She said she gets a
cut of P50 ($1.035) from a girl who, in turn, gets P300 to P500 ($6.21 to
$10.35) for every. With the port turned from an inter-island, domestic
port to an international cargo port, they began to cater to foreign
seamen.
At first, she said,
the girls she handled came from the provinces of Samar, Cavite, Iloilo,
Cebu and even Manila. But as poverty spread among the former port dwellers
relocated in Balete and Sico, Amanda said girls from the relocation sites
started working as prostitutes as well.
Family business
One of those lured
into prostitution is Sandy (not her real name), Amanda’s niece.
A former barbecue and
balut (boiled duck eggs) vendor, Sandy, now 42, started “going out”
with her patrons barely a year after their community was demolished. “Bata
pa ako nun, may itsura, kaya ayun” (I was still young then and
pretty.), she kidded.
She said
she only catered to foreign patrons, “kasi hindi sila maarte kausap.”
(Because it is not difficult to deal with them) Sandy said she earns $50
to $100 for every customer but would only get half of it because she had
to give a cut to her mamasan, to the ship operator, and to Customs
officials. “Naku, ligal na ligal ang pagho-hostess dito. Biruin
mo, pati Customs nakikinabang,” (Prostitution is legal here.
Even Customs officials benefit from it.), she said.
On peak
seasons such as Christmas and Holy Week, she would have three to four
patrons a night. “Hanggat merun, sige lang ng sige,” she said, “hindi
ko naman ginagawa ito para magpasarap lang.” (While there is a
customer, I go on and on. I am not doing this to enjoy.)
Sandy
has three children to feed, she said, and her husband has left them for
good. She spends P500 ($10.35) every month for rent because she sold the
rights to her lot at the relocation center.
“Gusto
ko sana mamasukan kasi madami din naman akong alam bukod sa humilata sa
kama kaya lang walang mapasukang trabaho dito,” (I would have wanted
to work because I have a lot of skills aside from lying in bed, but there
is no work here.), she added.
Sandy
said she has now turned into being a mamasan (pimp) to earn a
living, a job she shares with her 68-year-old mother, Belinda (not her
real name). “Syempre, tumatanda na ako, nababawasan na ng customer.
Pero minsan, pag may nago-offer sinusunggaban ko na rin para mas
malaki ang kita” (Of course, I am getting old so my customers are
fewer now. But sometimes if there is an offer I still take it to earn
more.), she explains.
Days
when there are no customers, Sandy said, her mother would scavenge scrap
materials at the nearby dump and sell these to the nearest junkshop. The
small earnings from junk could at least provide them a meal, Sandy said.
“Pwede
na rin pantawid gutom,” (Just to tide us over the hunger.), she said
as she shrugs her shoulders. Bulatlat
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