PH retains good grade in US State Department report on human trafficking
The Philippines retained its highest grade in the US State Department’s ranking of efforts by governments to fight human trafficking, but still fell short in assisting victims and prosecuting officials involved in the heinous industry.
The latest US State Department annual report released Wednesday said the Philippine government “fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking… therefore the Philippines remained on Tier 1.”
The government “demonstrated serious and sustained efforts by convicting and punishing more traffickers, identifying more victims through proactive screening procedures, and expanding its efforts to prevent trafficking of Filipino migrant workers,” the report said.
At the same time it noted the government’s shortcomings.
“Although the government meets the minimum standards, it did not expand the availability and quality of protection and assistance services for trafficking victims, particularly mental health care and services for male victims,” the report said.
“Further, the government did not vigorously investigate and prosecute officials allegedly involved in trafficking crimes nor expand its pilot program to address the backlog of trafficking cases in the courts,” it added.
The US State Department urged the Philippine government to strengthen measures to assist and protect trafficking victims, prosecute officials involved and to stop child sex tourism and online child sex abuse.
Its recommendations include: increase the availability of services for trafficking victims with a particular focus on expanding access to mental health care and services for male victims; increase efforts to expedite victim-centered prosecution of trafficking cases especially in cases involving child victims;
increase efforts to investigate and prosecute officials involved in trafficking; increase efforts to identify internal labor trafficking victims especially children, and prosecute labor trafficking cases;
expand the victim and witness protection program throughout the criminal proceedings; implement programs to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts including child sex tourism and online child sexual exploitation;
expand government support for long-term specialized services for trafficking victims; expand efforts to prevent re-traumatization caused by multiple interviews and facilitate timely reintegration of child victim witnesses with community-based follow-up services;
increase training for community members and military and law enforcement personnel on appropriate methods to protect children officially disengaged from armed groups and vigorously investigate allegations of abuse by officials;
and develop a data collection system across agencies of anti-trafficking activities including victim identification, services provided, investigations, prosecutions and convictions.
From April 1 to December 31, 2016, the government charged 441 alleged traffickers (from 569 in 2015) and secured convictions of 55 traffickers (from 42 traffickers in 2015). These cases involved 131 victims, 78 of whom were children.
However of the 20 labor trafficking cases prosecuted, none resulted in a conviction, the US State Department report said.
The government did not file criminal cases to punish the recruitment and use of child soldiers by armed groups, it added.
By the end of last year, more than 1,100 trafficking cases remained pending in court “due to endemic inefficiencies such as non-continuous trials, large caseloads, limited resources and in some cases, corruption,” the US State Department said.
It added that while the government convicted four perpetrators of online sexual exploitation of children, police and prosecutors did not have adequate personnel and resources.
“The government’s investigation and prosecution of these cases relied substantially on the support and cooperation of foreign law enforcement and NGOs,” it said.
