Sen. Risa Hontiveros (INQUIRER file photo / JOAN BONDOC)
MANILA, Philippines — The country must strengthen its border control measures and have clear transborder solutions to curb human trafficking, Senator Risa Hontiveros said on Thursday.
The Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality, which Hontiveros chairs, is investigating them reported trafficking of Filipinos to work as cryptocurrency scammers in Myanmar.
“Dapat mapaigting din ang border control dito sa Pilipinas para masigurado na hindi natin ipapasakamay ang ating mga kababayan sa mga sindikato,” Hontiveros said in a statement.
(We should bolster our border control here in the Philippines to ensure that Filipinos don’t fall prey to syndicates.)
“Moving forward, there have to be clear transborder solutions. The Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia are bound by the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) convention against trafficking in persons kaya dapat mayroong (so there should be) tighter coordination para sugpuin ang krimeng ito (to end this crime),” she added.
Meanwhile, the trafficked Filipinos should be brought back to the Philippines, Hontiveros raised, adding that coordination between concerned government agencies and foreign governments should be swift.
She further assured the public that the committee investigation would hold erring individuals or groups in the Bureau of Immigration or Manila International Airport Authority accountable.
Hontiveros pointed out that there should be immediate programs and policies that will provide decent livelihoods or sources of income to Filipinos to prevent them from being victimized by human traffickers.