Philippine News Digest 137
August 30, 2002 ·
Contents:
- Gang selling women to sex den operators
- Cambodia turning into child-sex haven
- Solon wants illicit trade of human organs, tissues stopped
Gang selling women to sex den operators
The Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) ordered its personnels to be more strict in screening Filipino women departing for the United Arab Emirates amidst reports that many of them are victimized by illegal recruiters and lured into prostitution. BID Commissioner Andrea Domingo reiterated the bureau’s policy of banning the departure of overseas workers who do not have employment certificates from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. One of the victims of illegal recruitment came from Davao who was brought to Manila after being told that she would work as a receptionist in the Emirates. In Dubai, she and another victim were sold for 6,000 dinars to a Palestinian who operates a sex den. Source: G. de los Santos, Today, 27 August 2002.
Cambodia turning into child-sex haven
Intensified crackdowns in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam are pushing would-be sexual predators to Cambodia where poverty is overwhelming that girls as young as 12 or 13 are routinely sold by guardians or neighbors into the sex trade as virgins, fetching a price anywhere from $300 to $1,000. There are no figures on the number of people who come to Cambodia for sex with children. Most customers of adult prostitutes are Cambodians, while foreigners seeking child sex tend to be westerners, Japanese and ethnic Chinese. Official figures indicate that 30 percent of Cambodia’s sex workers are minors and that the age of victims sold into the sex trade is dropping so that 12 is no longer unsusual. Last July 16, Italian Alain Filippe Berutti was convicted to 10 years in prison for having sex with boys aged 14 and under. Since then, five more foreigners have been arrested or tried for debauchery, the charge Cambodia uses to prosecute pedophiles. Source: Chris Decherd of the Associated Press in Today, 26 August 2002.
Solon wants illicit trade of human organs, tissues stopped
Senator Loren Legarda sought to stop the illicit marketing of human organs and tissues for profit by pushing for the immediate passage of a law that would establish a unified national system of organ sharing. At present, the highest bidder for an organ obtains a status of privilege because of his wealth. Many wealthy foreigners come to the Philippines for organ transplant where they find willing donors who are in dire poverty. Legarda said the government must be able to device a system by which valuable human organs and tisues which are desperately needed by waiting victims of end-stage organ failure could be readily obtained and equitably distributed. Source: Today, 26 August 2002.
