Tier 2 on human trafficking chart good enough for PH–De Lima

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima: Tier 2 good enough. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Keeping its Tier 2 ranking in the fight against human trafficking the past four years is still a “feat” for the country that could be attributed to the significant increase in the government’s conviction of traffickers, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Tuesday.

De Lima was referring to the 2014 Global Trafficking in Persons (GTIP) report issued by US Secretary of State John Kerry on June 20, in which the Philippines retained for a fourth straight year its Tier 2 ranking.

Tier 2 countries are those that do not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act but are exerting significant efforts to do so.

No downgrade a feat

“Having retained for four consecutive years (2011-2014) our Tier 2 ranking, that is, not being downgraded to the Tier 2 watch list or worse, Tier 3, is already a feat, hence, laudable,” De Lima said in a text message to reporters.

She attributed this to improvements in the number of trafficking convictions.

But at the same time De Lima admitted that corruption “remains to be among the challenges” in the government’s bid to stop human trafficking and it was making headway in filing cases against erring individuals.

From only 29 convictions (with 30 convicted traffickers) as of June 2010, De Lima said the number of convictions rose to 130 (with 148 convicted traffickers) as of June 17.

“This means that 77 percent of the total convictions or 101 convictions (with 118 convicted traffickers) were posted during the Aquino administration,” she said.

In a separate statement, De Lima praised the government’s antihuman trafficking team for making the country among the leaders in the region in combating the problem of “modern-day slavery.”

Gov’t bent on improving

The Department of Justice said the Philippines was among five states in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that were in Tier 2. The four others were Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

“Based on the report, we are currently one of the leaders in the region in fighting trafficking in persons,” she said, adding the government was bent on improving that standing “by making sure we eliminate some of the negative concerns and subscribe to most of the recommendations in the GTIP index.”

This includes, among other things, “bringing more people to the table so we can find ways to prevent them from being victimized and revictimized, making sure their abusers are dealt with, and giving survivors an opportunity for restorative care and the more comfortable life they were seeking in the first place,” De Lima said.