WHEN the Pharisees challenged Jesus of Nazareth to answer if a woman caught committing adultery should be stoned to death in accordance with the law of Moses, he responded: “The one of you that has no sin can throw the first stone” (Jn 8:7).
The Pharisees, knowing full well they are sinners themselves, felt ashamed and went away.
Alone with the woman, Jesus asked her: “Is there anyone to condemn you?”
She replied: “No one, sir.”
Jesus then said: “Then, I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
In the Philippines, adultery is both a sin and a crime, with the woman regarded as the main offender. A married man in an extramarital relationship not only betrays his wife and children, but can also be charged by the spouse for concubinage under the Revised Penal Code. But these crimes are so common that they have been generally ignored.
Similarly, prostitution has become “socially acceptable” enough and commonplace that local governments issue operating permits and licenses for sex bars and brothels. Trafficking people into the sex industry is a serious crime, but this has been generally overlooked, even tolerated. That is, until international agencies like the United Nations’ anti-trafficking committee exert pressure and bring attention to the non-enforcement of Philippine anti-trafficking laws.
In response, the police will conduct raids and arrest a few traffickers. However, the conviction rate is very low.
Today, young women trapped by debt bondage as sex workers are protected from prosecution by Republic Act (RA) 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003. It gives them legal protection as victims of human trafficking and exploitation.
RA 9710, or the Magna Carta of Women Act of 2009, considers prostitution an act of violence against women. It also established the rights of women and provides protection and anti-discrimination provisions promoting the well-being of women, especially since most of them are poor. With this law, the wise Filipinos behind it finally embody Jesus’ words when he said to the adulteress: “Neither do I condemn you.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund says more than two million Filipino children have reported being sexually abused and exploited. The number of children trafficked into prostitution is over 100,000, but the exact figure is unknown. Human traffickers and sex bar and brothel operators provide false names and fake IDs to these minors to show they are older than 18.
Female recruiters and traffickers offer teenagers from poor families “well-paid jobs.” They pay the parents a cash advance on the salaries of the children and take them to cities, where they are trafficked and sold to sex bars and brothels. They are then intimidated and made docile by threats of being jailed or their parents being jailed if they run away without paying off the money given in advance to the parents. This is debt bondage, a modern form of sex slavery.
Girls who are sexually abused in their own home by their father, stepfather or their mother’s live-in partner, brother, grandfather, or relative frequently run away to escape and often end up on the streets. They are prone to be victimized by pedophiles or vulnerable enough to be befriended by a “friendly” human trafficker who feeds and grooms them, and later persuades them to go with him or her to work as a waitress in a bar. There, they are sexually abused by the owner or operator and then given to customers. They soon become victims of debt bondage. They lose their greatest gift: freedom of choice. (To be continued)/PN
