Philippine News Digest 40
October 17, 2002 ·
Contents:
- RP to sue Seoul club owner for forcing women to flesh trade
- Bar owners claim RP soldiers pimping for GIs
- Immigration agents arrest German wanted for fraud
RP to sue Seoul club owner for forcing women to flesh trade
The Philippine government is to file a lawsuit against a night club owner convicted of forcing Filipinas into prostitution. South Korea police arrested the club manager and freed the Fiplipuinas from the night club near Seoul in June. However, the man off with a 10-month suspended jail term. Eleven Filipinas who entered the country this year with visas permitting themto work in the entertainment industry were working at the club. Nine of them were forced to work as prostitutes and lived as captioves of the club management. They were given less than $10 a week for food and their wages were withheld. They wdere locked in a room after working hours and unable to leave the club freely. Source: Agence France Press report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, 17 October 2002.
Bar owners claim RP soldiers pimping for Gis
As a safeguard against attacks by terrorist or communist groups, the 800 American troops participating in the bilateral war games between the US and the Philippines from prohibited from leaving the nearby Clark Special Economic Zone where they are based. This meant that Field’s Avenue would not be the G Is rest and recreation center for the first time since 1999 when the Visiting Forces Agreement was first implemented. This early, however, bar owners on Field’s Avenue are accusing some Philippine Air Force men of pimping for American soldiers. Commercial sex workers were reportedly being brought into Clark for nightly rendezvous with US soldiers. “Excluded” bar managers lamented that “they (Filipino troops) get women from only a few clubs” making them unable to make the most of the two-week exercise. Inside Clark, several women could be spotted aboard vans headed for the servicemen’s housing units. Maj. Allan Ballesteros of the Philippine Army srongly denied the allegations. Source: Tonette Orejas, Philippine Daily Inquirer Central Luzon Desk, 17 October 2002.
Immigration agents arrest German wanted for fraud
Agents of the Bureau of Immigration arrested October 14 a German fugitive who fled to the Philippines to evade serving sentence in Germany where he was convicted for fraud and swindling. Wolfgang Heinrich Konrad Harlinghausen, 60, was arrested in Olongapo after attending a hearing in the city’s Regional Trial Court on the strength of a mission order. This developed as BID Commissioner Andrea Domingo ordered an immediate investigation as to why Harlinghausen was able to re-enter the Philippines despite the fact that he was blacklisted by the bureau on September 24. Source: G. de los Santos, Today, 15 October 2002.
