Sex Tourism - A Curse On The Nation
Document Title: Sex Tourism - A Curse On The
Nation
Document Ref No: R9705071
First Published: Reflections - Philippine Daily Inquirer
Publication Date: 7th May 1997
Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen SSC
This May 22 the World Tourism organization is holding a meeting in Manila
for World Tourism Leaders.
As part of their meeting the will attend a conference on the Social Impact
of Tourism. The sexual exploitation of children is one of them and Mr. Ron
O'Grady of the End Child Prostitution in Asian tourism, a world wide movement
he helped start will be the main speaker.
It is time for us to ask why such a conference is necessary at all.
Tourism is becoming one of the world's biggest industries worth billions
of dollars and the Philippine Government and tourism sector wants a big
piece of the action. However there is one snag , since the Marcos regime
the Philippines has been dragged into the muck of sex tourism, child sex
and child labor that has drawn many of the worst kind of tourists, pedophiles
and sex tourists.
They are keeping away the family and recreation seeking tourists.
The root of the problem lies with the unjust social system. Economic policy
in the past few years has created untold wealth and prosperity for only
for a elite few. The poor have been left behind.
This has had untold consequence on children. World Tourist Leaders will
not see the plight of these millions of children.
There are an estimated 1.5 million children living on the streets in the
Philippines between 7 and 12 years old. They are growing up malnourished,
with impaired health, uneducated, and as many as 100,000 of these children
are traumatized by physical and sexual abuse.
They are a growing mass of uneducated children that are increasingly anti-social
because of police brutality, neglect and rejection and they will grow up
to a life of deprivation, unemployment and even criminality.
The estimated 100,000 of these children who are physically and are sexually
abused or lured into child prostitution where they are treated as commercial
commodities to be bought and sold.
This is a huge problem facing the government and the NGO community. All
have to contend with the reality of sex tourism and the expanding sexual
exploitation of minors.
Beside the hand wringing and the short term solution to help these children
long term solutions have to sought out. One glaring need is to improve the
condition of education.
For reasons which some say is due to corruption and the diversion of funds,
schools are deteriorating in the quantity and and quality of the service
delivered to the young children.
There are 12,000 rural districts out of 43,000 nationwide that do not have
elementary schools. Only about half of those elementary schools, 21,600,
provide a full six years of primary education.
Many thousands of children never attend school because their parents cannot
afford the school requirements or they need the children to work and contribute
to the family budget for survival. They frequently migrate to the cities.
There they live in squalor and inhuman conditions.
They suffer unemployment, disease, hunger and malnutrition.
Many thousands of children resort to living on the streets, begging and
taking drugs to ease the pangs of hunger as they work long hours to earn
a little to buy scraps of food.
Those forced into child prostitution suffer the most. Their abusers are
local and foreign pedophiles attracted by their vulnerability and weakness
and the widespread police corruption that allows them to abuse children
with impunity while protecting the pimps and brothel operators.
Many thousands of children are lured into child labor by their need to survive.
Around the world an estimated 200 million children are child workers. In
the Philippines there are 5.5 million. They work on building site factories
and sweat shops and since much of it is undetected no one knows the suffering
they endure.
According to the anti-slavery society child workers around the world suffer
the same punishments. They have been burned, branded with red hot irons,
starved, whipped, chained to walls and machines, raped and locked in cells
and cupboards for days and weeks.
They must move away from development policies that are only project oriented
and benefit the rich. They must concentrate on Human Development with equal
vigor and commitment.
We all need an awaking of our collective moral and ethical responsibilities
and government has to change it's priorities away from self-interest groups
and work for the common good of the poor.
