COTABATO CITY—Human trafficking persists in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), from where came more than half of at least 1,470 women trafficked to Syria in 2012, according to officials.
Laisa Alamia, ARMM executive secretary, said at a two-day seminar on trafficking that out of the 1,470 women victims of trafficking in Syria that were reported to authorities, at least 605 are from the ARMM provinces of Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Maguindanao.
Alamia said she believed poverty and armed conflict were driving women into desperation, forcing them to cling to false promises of jobs.
The ARMM remains to be the poorest region in the country, with a poverty incidence of 46.9 percent in 2012. The national poverty incidence in 2012 is 22.3 percent.
According to the National Statistical Coordination Board, 47 out of every 100 families in the ARMM are poor compared to 22 out of every 100 in the national level.
Alama said some traffickers targeted minors in the ARMM for prostitution in Metro Manila, though she said this was still being verified.
The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking had said trafficking was abetted by low literacy rates.
Since 2008, the ARMM has maintained the lowest literacy rate in the country, with barely over 70 percent.
Santanina Rasul, former senator, said continuing armed conflicts in some areas in the ARMM were major obstacles to the success of education programs.
Since clashes in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur followed the failure to take off in 2006 of a memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain between Moro rebels and the government, hundreds of thousands of people have yet to return to their communities and have languished in evacuation centers or have lived with relatives.
Alamia said the displacement of people as a result of wars offered a window of opportunity for traffickers.
What compounded the problem, she said, was that no one had been punished for trafficking, as victims hesitated to file charges after being bribed or threatened.
“Not a single case of human trafficking in the region has been filed despite the soaring number of incidents,” she said.
ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said this was what he was trying to change with an executive order that seeks to strengthen regional antihuman trafficking efforts.
Hataman said he also ordered the release of an initial amount of P2 million to encourage victims of human trafficking to file cases against their recruiters. Charlie Señase and Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao