NOWADAYS, children are sexually abused in their own homes and secretly trafficked to brothels with false ID and forged birth certificates. An even greater danger is the livestreaming of child abuse sex shows over the internet by parents and relatives to earn money and satisfy the lust of foreign pedophiles.
The Preda Foundation is dedicated to fighting child abuse in all its forms. Its social workers rescue, heal and empower hundreds of victims of human trafficking and domestic sexual abuse, and many of the children they helped had their abusers convicted in court.
In 2024 alone, 27 such abusers went to prison, most of them for life, thanks to the brave and empowered children who testified against them and honest, incorruptible judges. At any given time, there are as many as 55 to 60 girls in the Preda home in Subic, Zambales.
These girls were rescued by municipal social workers, some of whom were trained and gained experience at Preda. They are now working in collaboration with the foundation. As many as 15 towns with no care homes for abused children refer them to the Preda home for protection, healing and legal assistance.
One report says there have been 200 convictions in the Philippines over a five-year period for online child abuse. This is a very dismal conviction rate when compared with a report by the International Justice Mission (IJM) that says that 500,000 children have been used for producing sexual abuse materials or online sex shows.
If there were more undercover policemen posing as foreign customers, they could detect and intercept the parents and relatives offering to sell their children in sex abuse shows.
The IJM said the report that “in 2022 alone, nearly half a million Filipino children, or roughly [one] in 100 children, were trafficked to produce child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) for profit.”
It also said, “a 2023 report by the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council found that US-originating payments triggered the largest number of suspicious financial transaction reports related to online child sexual abuse and exploitation in the Philippines.”
Despite a six-year international project by the multisectoral consortium SaferKidsPH to curb online sexual abuse, there is little to show for the huge expense and effort, besides a statement of intent. Yet, there was no challenge and public debate demanding that the telecommunication corporations install blocking software as demanded by RA 9775 and RA 11930. These demand corporations to detect and block such online child abuse.
This is the root of the problem: the non-implementation of these laws and no prosecution of the bosses of the offending corporations./PN
