kababaihan-at-kapayapaan-issue-3

Profiles of victims and survivorsMajority are aged 17. The oldest is 32 and the youngest 14. All are female, saveone. Most come from conflict areas or host communities (areas which hostinternally displaced persons). Most have reached elementary school level, afew are unschooled. Most parents are farmers with low level of schooling, ornone at all. Some recruiters are victims’ relatives. Birth certificates are fakedor simulated. Through the “baklas” system (Pilipino for “pull out”), underagegirls assume the papers and identities of other older women. Interceptedvictims often do not, given their true family backgrounds. [From MaguindanaoProvince NAP 2013-2016]Social welfare officer Barbara T. Guialel recounts that prolonged armedconflict and the inadequacy of government and humanitarian aid to addressbasic needs of the poor push young girls to overseas work, with an offer theycan hardly refuse: cash for the family, free travel and accommodations whileprocessing papers, and free processing. With no gainful work or meaningfulactivity, they are an easy prey to recruiters, often their own kin who reportedlyget P5,000 per recruit.When processing of papers grew more stringent in Maguindanao withincreased anti-trafficking advocacy, processing shifted to the cities of GeneralSantos, Cotabato, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao where unscrupulousrecruiters and agents still had some leeway. In 2013, 54 women and childrenwere intercepted in Marbel, South Cotabato – three cases of illegally traffickedMaguindanao women and children have been filed in Butuan City, and twobatches have returned.They may be the lucky ones. Guialel cites one Teduray tribe member fromNorth Upi who has filed a case with the regional trial court. Under an assumedidentity, she worked in Syria for seven years starting at age 11 without pay,the employer had her jailed when she fought back, she lost her wits, andwas repatriated in 2011. Another OFW experienced rape, brutality and foodstarvation. Yet another died soon after her return home at age 22, apparentlyfrom poison injected by her employer as punishment for a head woundsustained by a toddler under her care after a fall.Provincial administrator Tunga speaks of a Catch-22 situation for manyvictims. His own cousin sold all her properties to work abroad, sending homeher savings in the course of 20, maybe 30, years. She returned home to nothing,her kin had spent all her earnings. Others take a loan of P20,000 from therecruitment agency for papers processing, paid for with their first few months’salary. But there are other debts to pay, e.g. airfare. After paying off debts whenvisiting home, she must return abroad to continue sending money home. Onand on the cycle goes, she lives out her days as a domestic in a foreign land.The provincial government’s response to the trafficking problem is threefold:prevention and awareness raising through education campaigns andworkshops on anti-trafficking legislation; protection, recovery, rehabilitationand reintegration through coordinated action across LGUs and livelihood skillstraining; and prosecution and law enforcement (illegal recruiters have beenprosecuted and jailed).Saudi Arabia) notwithstanding thestories of abuse and poor workingconditions. Underage recruits manageto qualify through various means:the wonders of hijab (head covering)and make-up, parents’ false witnesson their daughter’s age, and spuriousbirth certificates for a fee (seeSidebar).Four targets of Maguindanao NAPMaguindanao’s provincial NAP planhas four targets, highlighted in thebooklet Province-National Action Planon Women, Peace and Security 2013-16,namely: institutional development--including GAD focal point system andlocal committees on anti-trafficking(LACAT); prevention and advocacy--capability building and intensifiedinformation campaigns; prosecutionand law enforcement; andre-integration, recovery andprosecution.The years 2013-14 were activity-filledperiods that included meetings ofanti-trafficking bodies and strategicplanning, capacity building for policeand boosting the gender focal pointsystem, women’s livelihood skillstraining, orientation on domesticviolence, and focus on children’s rightsthrough film showing, photo exhibitsand poster making. Communitysessions on children’s rights andchild protection have been held in52 barangays. A total of 135 out-ofschoolyouth have undergone life skillstraining sessions.In mid-2014, public hearings on aproposed GAD Code were capped by itsapproval by the provincial board. Thiswas followed by a gender sensitivitytraining workshop, orientationworkshopon GAD planning andbudgeting, and adoption of localordinances on mandatory registrationof births, deaths and marriages.22 KABABAIHANatKAPAYAPAAN March 2015