Trafficking of Women in the Philippines and the existing and Current Measures to Prevent Them: An Assessment

Abstract

Prostitution has existed since Plato's time. Since then, women are seen as individuals that could provide sexual services. However, as the world advanced, prostitution has also transformed into a more exploitative and extensive "business" called trafficking. The extent of trafficking nowadays is so alarming that, in fact, no country in the world today has not been affected by trafficking either as a destination, origin, or point of transit. Through the intricate coordination between notorious syndicates such as the Japanese Yakuza, Italian Camorra, and Russian Mafia, women can now be brought from one place to another and serve sexual services. The amount of profit gained from this flesh trade has been very huge that, in fact, many government officials have connived with and accepted bribes from traffickers. This paper examined the existing and current measures that address the trafficking of women in the Philippines and how effective they have been in preventing the growth of incidence in trafficking. Chapter 2 of this paper presented a brief history and extent of trafficking in the Philippines. It also presented the factors that push and pull women to migrate to other countries. The existing and current measures that address the trafficking of women in the Philippines are discussed in Chapter 3. The preceding chapter, on the other hand, examined and assessed the effectiveness of the existing and current measures in preventing the further growth of incidence in trafficking. Chapter 5 of this paper presented case studies of trafficked women in the Philippines. It also provided a brief examination of how the government responded to and helped trafficked women in achieving justice. Chapter 6 provided conclusions as well as recommendations on how the Philippine Congress could enact and provide more gender-responsive laws regarding women and the numerous violence against them.