A president that is a compassionate and wise woman

Long-suffering Filipinos have only known poverty since they have had many strongmen as presidents, believing that a man could rule justly with fear and force. They welcomed iron-fisted leaders of the past, hoping they could solve social issues, alleviate poverty and bring justice. That belief has proven to be a mistake. Filipinos were persuaded that “Might is Right,” what a disappointment that has been.

 
The poor and hungry Filipinos, 26.14 million of them in a population of 110.8 million, deserve a kind, compassionate, caring woman president that will work heart and soul to alleviate the hardship of the poor and lift up the lower middle class. The poor and low-income group, according to a 2015 research, makes up 58 percent of the population. The middle class comprises 40.5 percent and the rich are just 1.4 percent but they own 42 percent of the wealth. According to other research, the Philippines has the greatest inequality in wealth distribution in Asia. They need a woman president that understands the many millions of people on the edge of hunger and poverty. A woman with love in her heart and a strong will to serve and bring justice to the poor is the hope of the nation. That woman will not bow to crony capitalism that is controlling the economy and creating poverty. The people cry out in their millions for a woman of wisdom and determination. It is the burning hope of millions of people. 

Since President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and ruled with an iron fist, the Philippines has continued to slide into dire poverty. Corruption and plunder grew on a massive scale that caused poverty and hunger to increase. Dissidents, critics, and journalists were killed, jailed, or exiled. The conjugal rule for twenty years of plunder created the roots of poverty until the present. 
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, in 2015 17.6 million Filipinos were hungry every day. By 2021, the number of hungry Filipinos rose to 26.14 million. The pandemic and lockdowns accounted for some of this increase but not all as the population increased and the poor have large families. However, the trend toward greater poverty has been constant. 

The poor are ever becoming poorer and hungrier. They are eating less rice and more noodles to fill their stomachs but noodles are of lower nutritional value. Low nutrition stunts the brain and hunger drive children onto the streets, begging and stealing to survive the hunger. There are an estimated 500,000 to one million children roaming the streets of Manila, looking for something to eat every day. A woman president would have a lot of challenges to deal with. According to government statistics, 16 percent of all families do not have electricity, which means they do not have any appliances. But 82 percent own a television and 64 percent of families have a mobile phone. That means more or less 26.14 million living in tiny shacks, 10 by 29 square meters, watch television and have access to social media. 

While eating flavored noodles from paper cups or rice and soy sauce once a day, they can be influenced by hunger and empty promises of relief and social services on social media and election propaganda. With hunger gnawing at their stomachs, they are likely to take the thousand or more pesos payment (approximately US $20) to support the vote-buying candidates. They are the multi-millionaires that spend ill-gotten wealth stolen from the people. Unfortunately, they can buy the election. The elite will always remain in power. So it is possible that the ruling elite and their dynasties let the poor stay poor and desperate so that at election time, the poor will always take the money and out of a false sense of gratitude, 'a debt of honor' (utang na loob) they will actually vote for the candidate who pays them. 

After voting, they will receive another payment. The poor need a caring mother president to lift them once and for all out of this dire poverty. They are the ever-present pool of low-cost labor for construction, street cleaning, and so on. They live on the streets and eat pag-pag most of the time, begging, selling junk, or sometimes selling their teenage daughters just to survive, reprehensible as that is. Pag-pag is the recycled leftover, half-eaten food from the plates of diners in restaurants. It is collected, boiled by street vendors, and served as a meal to the very poor, it is a real treat. One in every four poor families lives in a shack in slums and has no sanitary toilet, no electricity, and eats only once a day. They live in dire poverty in a rich and prosperous nation blessed with vast natural minerals and other resources, which benefits the super-rich that lives in the towering condominiums overlooking the poverty-stricken slums. The well-off drive on elevated highways, above the stinking hole of poverty and suffering, a quagmire of sickness and death. Poverty has also driven many teenagers to drop their studies and look for work but there are few jobs and many turn to prostitution to get money and clothes and gadgets. 

The elimination of poverty through equality-creating policies should be one of the most important goals of any government where the power and energy of a nation are entrusted to the leader who will ideally work for the common good, the prosperity and well-being of all the people as a nation. A good leader will work for greater equality and justice, provide access to quality education and protect the rights and dignity of all people to education and well-being, especially that of women and children. A loving woman can best fit the daunting job of president.

Three Catastrophes are Already upon the World

We must face the unpleasant and painful truth about what is happening to the planet and our lives. You may think that the climate catastrophe facing mankind is global warming but in fact there are at least three catastrophes behind the climate change disaster.

The first one is the effect of CO2, nitrous oxide and methane that are covering the planet like a blanket and locking in the heat of the sun. It is like putting the planet in a glass-covered greenhouse. The heat is causing devastating droughts, leaving millions of people without food. This is causing massive migration of the hungry populations from the South to the North. The earth and forests are burning down. In Russia, Europe, the USA and Australia, enormous forest fires destroy all before them. 

The oceans filled with plastic are heating up, reducing fish stocks, and the water is evaporating into clouds that bring massive rainstorms that overwhelm dams and rivers causing floods of biblical proportions. There are few forests left because of massive deforestation in the Amazon and parts of Asia and Europe. Forests absorb CO2 and hold excessive rainwater. The animals are dead from drought or floods and landslides are burying villages. Rising sea levels and wind-driven tides due to the melting of the Arctic ice add to the destruction. This we see on our television screens already and there is much more to come.

  

The second catastrophe is the corrupt politicians in cahoots with money moguls of giant multinational corporations that get them elected to office. They support the oil, gas and coal industries and allow global warming to happen by doing little or nothing to mitigate the gasses or curbing the burning of fossil fuels.

The corrupt politicians work with scheming tycoons that lobby for laws that give them billions of payments in subsidies to promote the oil and coal industries. The payments of taxpayers’ money to US corporations amount to US$20 billion annually. From that, 20 percent is for the coal industry and 80 percent for oil and natural gas companies.  The EU spends US$55 billion annually in subsidies to the fossil fuel industries. In the US, approximately $2.1 trillion dollars was earned by the oil and gas industries in 2021, according to The Environmental and Energy Study Institute.  (https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-fossil-fuel-subsidies-a-closer-look-at-tax-breaks-and-societal-cost).

The politicians in the pay of the corporations delay legislation to switch from coal and oil to renewables and block laws that mandate electric cars. However, in public, they are monster hypocrites and liars promising to end subsidies and change to renewables. The G7 nations made such a pledge recently, but will they do it? Since the year 2000, coal-burning plant capacity has increased by 100 percent led by China and India. There are 80 nations using coal plants to generate electricity, most get government support. Australia will continue burning coal and selling it abroad. More coal plants are being built in many countries. The promises that will be made at the COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland are just that- empty promises. As 18-year old environmental activist Greta Thunberg says, it is just Blah Blah Blah.    

The Philippines is coal-dependent with as many as 28 coal-fired power plants currently operating throughout the Philippines, with total installed capacity of 9.88 gigawatts. The energy department has approved another 22 coal plants. The electricity to be generated by coal will be 53 percent by 2030. Environmental groups are protesting these plans. Philippine corporations have to get into a bed of bribery with high government officials to get approval for the energy coal projects.

Geothermal and hydro-power from dams make up the other source of energy. The present government wants to give full foreign ownership of new geothermal plants to foreign companies from Russia and China but local opposition is growing. However, the solar and wind sector is almost non-existent. The Philippine government will have no good news for the COP26 conference.

Global warming continues hotter than ever as a result. Studies show that there is more C02 in the atmosphere, not less, in 2020.To keep the global temperature at 1.5 degrees and avoid disasters, the earth needs a reduction in greenhouse gases of 55 percent and so far, the pledges of 120 nations add up to only 7.5 percent cuts. The promises and pledges to cut the emissions would need to increase seven times to save the planet from the point of no return by 2030.  The politicians and corporations are successfully persuading the public with lies and fake news that their pledges and promises are true. The facts speak otherwise. President Joe Biden seems more honest. He is proposing strong legislation to support industry to change to renewable energy- wind and solar- not promises.

A case in point in the US where Senator Manchin has blocked the ambitious legislation of President Biden to change to renewable energy production and impose fines on those industries that release methane into the atmosphere. Senator Manchin’s vote for Biden’s legislation is vital. He is holding back because the biggest coal industry in his state of West Virginia gets big subsidies and he himself earns US$500,000 a year from his personal investment in coal.

  

The third catastrophe is the ignorance, blindness and apathy and indifference of the public worldwide to the truth of climate change. Many stupidly allow it to happen without protest or demanding to know how and why.

This indifference allows multinational corporations like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, the telecommunication companies and the fossil fuel corporations to rise to great power and their platforms control the data, the news feeds and distort and manipulate the public. The message of COP26 will be controlled by them and they can continue to perpetuate their lies that there is no real danger to the planet that they cannot control. They will continue to rake in trillions of dollars in profit and rip off the people. How do they do it?

As the famous Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was executed for opposing Hitler said, the general public can be very stupid. They give up their independence and do not know it but each person talks “. . . with slogans, catch words, and the like that have taken possession of him, he is under a spell, blinded, misused and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool. . . ”

So it seems in the Philippines and much of the world today as we travel towards climate catastrophe carried on the flood waters of ignorance where too many people are mindless tools of the corporate powers that rule our consumer-dominated lives.

Pedophiles Abuse Children while Court of Appeals Sleeps

The recent decision of the Department of Education (DepEd) to dismiss for Grave Misconduct from the teaching profession Franco N. Aranas, a teacher in New Cabalan High School, Olongapo City should have been a swift decision to protect children and see justice done. However, it has taken almost three years before the decision was made to dismiss the abusive teacher who sexually abused his students. Yet this teacher, Franco N. Aranas, while found guilty for Grave Misconduct by the DepEd's Regional Director, May B. Eclar, can continue teaching in the same school until the dismissal from service is confirmed by Secretary Leonor Briones of the DepEd. We earnestly hope that Secretary Briones acts speedily to confirm the decision of the Regional Director to protect children and see justice is done. The DepEd must not harbor a child abuser among its ranks.

What is wrong with the system where it is clear justice delayed is justice denied, a system that favors the sex abusers and ignores traumatized children? It casts a dark shadow over the institutions. The teacher was accused of sexually abusing three minor students, one 14 and two 15 respectively, in the Sunshine Lodge near the Victory Liner station in Olongapo City on two separate occasions in June and August 2018. This place ought to be investigated for enabling human trafficking and child abuse, violations of law.

It appears the grooming and abuse of victims was ignored in the schools due to apathy and indifference. It is easy to report abuse. One brave teacher informed Preda Foundation by anonymously posting a tip -off on Preda Facebook. Preda social workers acted at once to help protect the victims and start formal criminal and administrative complaints against the accused. But bureaucracy and institutional go-slow attitudes that favor the accused and not the victims were operational. It has taken almost three years of constant follow-up by Preda staff and many hearings and presentations of testimony by traumatized victims to convict Aranas in the administrative case filed by Emmanuel C. Drewery, the executive director and senior social worker of the Preda Foundation, a child protection and healing organization in Olongapo City. Aranas is still on trial for the criminal cases in the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court. 

During the formal investigation of the DepEd, Aranas denied all the charges against him and presented an alibi which was said by the panel hearing the case to be faulty and did not preclude the sexual acts happening. The accused teacher also said in his defense that the act was consensual. This was denied since he was in a position of ascendency and power over his students, three minors 14 and 15 years of age.

Another case of child sexual abuse involving a teacher, Corskie San Jose, happened in the Olongapo City National High School in 2017. He sexually groomed children and was ignored for years by co-teachers and supervisors. Then, he sexually assaulted an 11-year old male student under the stairs in the school. The shocked parents of the 11-year old brought criminal and administrative cases against San Jose for child sexual abuse. Mr. Corskie San Jose also sexually assaulted in 2017 another 15-year old boy student outside the school.

After two years of hearings marked by frequent delays and postponements, the DepEd gave Corskie San Jose a six-month suspension only. He is back teaching at present. Recently, DepEd Olongapo City denied his attempt for a promotion.

The criminal cases against Corskie San Jose progressed in the Regional Trial Court and he was convicted in 2019 for the crime and sentenced to a minimum eight years in one case and a minimum of twelve years in the other. He was also ordered to pay the victims moral and exemplary damages. However, he is out on bail. He appealed to the Court of Appeals and that is still pending in the notoriously slow and seemingly inactive Court of Appeals. It is two years on appeal and not yet decided. What takes about two hours takes two years. What are they waiting for?

The notoriously slow, ponderous pace of decision making in the Court of Appeals potentially allows convicted paedophiles like Corskie San Jose to remain out of jail on bail. The court must realize that convicted pedophiles on bail can continue to abuse and possibly commit more crimes against children. We must complain to the Supreme Court the lack of action to decide these shocking heinous crimes against children pending in the Court of Appeals. It appears that the justices just don’t care and are waiting for something else.

The greatest enemy of children is the indifference and passive support by the public for pedophiles and pimps that prey on children and sexually abuse them. They give consent to child abuse by their silence, apathy and indifference. These people are accessories and enablers of crimes against children. They wrongly believe it is not their business to report or interfere but it is the urgent business of everybody.

Schools and church institutions' first reaction is to cover up the crime .The church in many dioceses keeps abuse secret and reassign abusive clerics. Concern for the victims is far from their feelings and thoughts.

The reputation of the institution comes first for the irresponsible clerics and teachers, not the protection of the child victims or the implementation of law so justice will be enforced and abuse will be challenged and punished. It was only when Mr. Francis Bermido, president of the Preda Foundation, reported the cases that there was media attention. The child abuse of students is just the tip of the iceberg, hidden beneath the waters of cold apathy.

Institutional leaders, bishops, priests, teachers, the public, judges, prosecutors and police must be challenged for having negative attitudes towards child-victims. There has to be deeper concern, respect for the children and the law, swift action to protect and bring the perpetrators to justice. Anything less is a mockery of law and human rights and the nation ceases to be a respected civilized country.

Children are the Most Important of All- Jesus

The attention of most adults is primarily focused on what they consider to be the most important reality in the world- themselves, especially many clerics. Yet there is one overriding unassailable truth that stands above all else in the teaching  of the founder of Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth. 

The truth that 2.382 billion Christians, including 1.329 billion Roman Catholics, have supposedly bound themselves to accept and obey is that children are the most important in the Kingdom of God. To accept, recognize and affirm a child with that exalted status and dignity is to accept Jesus himself.

That’s what he said and taught and for which he gave his life. He stood a child before them and declared, “Unless you change and become as innocent as this little child, you will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven is the one who humbles himself and becomes like this child, and whoever welcomes in my name one such child, welcomes me.” (Matthew 18:1-5)   

That teaching astounded the leaders of Palestine in his day where they had rejected Jesus and thereby rejected all children. For them the child, especially girls, had no status at all. They were non-persons. Jesus demanded that they and all the poor be affirmed, respected and their rights fully recognized. The leaders in Jerusalem rejected that and branded Jesus a subversive, a rebel and killed him for it. Let’s remember that every time we look upon a crucifix.

It seems like some modern clerical prelates are doing the same. As we celebrate on October 11 the International Day of the Girl Child, we recognize their sacred dignity and God-given rights but we are also hit with more outrageous clerical child abuse revelations.

The latest is the horrific and stupefying revelation about the French church and child sexual abuse by 3000 priests and male church officials this past week when “a devastating report found that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by  clergy and lay members of church institutions over the past 70 years. . . that staggering number of children were subjected to sexual violence by priests and clergy while the crimes were covered up in a “systemic way” by a deliberate “veil of silence” in the church. The president of the investigative committee, Jean-Marc Sauvé, told a press conference: “Until the early 2000s the Catholic Church showed a profound and even cruel indifference towards the victims.” (The Guardian)  

We have seen similar shocking reports and revelations in most western countries in recent years. Our first response is to stand with the victims and survivors. We denounce the abuse and offer the victims help, support, understanding and robust legal assistance to bring the abusers to justice. While we give the victims, girls and boys (many now older) comfort, help and compensation, we must pursue legal action against the abusers and their enablers.

The most important legislation needed worldwide is to cancel and revoke the legislation on the statute of limitations for crimes against children and actively pursue legal action to bring the abusers to justice. The accused abusers can then hear the testimony of their victims and confess, repent, atone and accept penance in jail for abusing children.  

That is the needed action, not for good Christians to surrender in shame and humiliation at the revelations of these heinous clerical crimes.  True believers and committed Christians have to fight back against such evil, not be overwhelmed by the revelations, not to be crushed in spirit and intimidated by the crimes of others.

These clerical abusers must not be protected, transferred away, and their crimes covered up by church or government officials.  We must be angry at this evil as Jesus was when the disciples scolded the people bringing children to him to bless. “When Jesus noticed this, he was angry, and said to his disciples, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a child, will never enter into it. Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on each of them and blessed them”. (Mark 10:13-16)  The disciples, like the Pharisees and Elders, thought children had no value either and were unworthy to be blessed.   

We have to take a stand with the abused and follow the example of Jesus himself and stand for the rights of the victims/survivors and dedicate ourselves to expose and bring every single child abusing perpetrator to justice.

Jesus showed the way himself when after placing a child in front of the crowd he said: “If anyone should cause one of these little ones to lose his faith in me, it would be better for that person to have a large millstone tied around his neck and he be drowned in the deep sea. How terrible for the world that there are things that cause people to lose their faith. Such things will always happen, but how terrible for the one who causes them.” How right he is, there will always be hypocrites, child rapists and clerics that sexually abuse and neglect children.

That’s a call for justice and accountability, not a call for the death penalty. A priest or layperson who abuses a child destroys the trust of that child in Jesus of Nazareth and in all adults, especially if it is a priest or a parent who abuses the child. If anyone knows of child abuse, it is our urgent duty to denounce the crimes and report the abuse. Silence about child abuse is consent. We have to do it. Report abuse in confidence to predainfo@gmail.com. 

The Philippine church has hidden such crimes and continues to do so. Cardinal Tagle said in a television interview on BBC’s Hardtalk that the Philippine Church deals with clerical child abuse internally. Since then, Pope Francis has ruled that clerical abusers must face civil courts. Dealing internally with abuse means the crimes are covered up and the abuser most likely continues his abuse.  This must stop.  

In the Philippines, victims of clerical child abuse and families are paid off or intimidated not to file or pursue charges. That has to end and abusers have to be brought to a civil court and wear a millstone, that is, do jail time where they cannot abuse more children. Whatever the loss of trust in the institution, we all hold fast to our faith in Jesus of Nazareth and his words.

The Burning And Flooding Of The Planet

Anyone watching on television the images of burning forests, the raging floods destroying lands and villages, massive landslides burying homes and people have no reason to deny the truth. The latest UN report on the climate crises by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) signed by 159 nations once again informs us that we human are responsible for this terrible crisis.

We humans are bringing disasters upon ourselves by tolerating and allowing through corrupt politicians the coal, oil and gas energy companies to promote their extraction and continual burning of fossil fuel. By financially supporting the election campaigns of friendly politicians, they are getting massive government subsidies to continue to produce and burn coal, oil and gas.

In the United States, fossil fuel subsidies to the energy industry are massive while money for renewable energy is much less. Worldwide, this is also the case. As much as US$447 billion dollars in taxpayers’ money is paid out in subsidies to billion-dollar companies in the coal, oil and gas industries since 2014 whereas support for renewable energy sources development is a mere US$128 billion dollars. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says: “Yet the continued imbalance remains staggering. In 2017, the costs of unpriced externalities and the direct subsidies for fossil fuels (USD 3.1 trillion) exceeded subsidies for renewable energy by a factor of 19.” https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2020/Apr/IRENA_Energy_subsidies_2020.pdf

The global warming seen in unequaled temperatures that has engulfed the world is due to one reason: burning fossil fuels. Coal, oil and gas extraction and burning has been essential for economic growth and development for the last 100 years. But now, it must stop. CO2 and methane gasses are trapping the heat of the sun like a blanket around the globe and we are slowly cooking ourselves and all living creatures and plants to death. Over a million animals and reptiles died in Australian fires last year alone. How many more this year in the US, EU and Russia?

Renewable carbon neutral sources of energy has to be speedily expanded: geothermal, wind turbines, solar panels, wave and tide power. These will be generating electricity to drive industry, heat and cool homes and power electric vehicles without damaging the planet. But will it succeed in time to save the planet? The scientists and environmentalists and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) can tell us the terrible truth that if the heating goes on beyond 1.5 degrees centigrade,  there will be even worse climate-induced disasters. More droughts, fires, greater floods, and crop failures. Millions will be displaced by violence and war over water, food and arable land. Millions of hungry desperate people will be migrating to safer countries for food and survival.

We have reached and passed the tipping point where the melted Arctic ice and mountain glaciers will take hundreds of years to freeze up again. So, the poor people in coastal towns, villages and low-lying Pacific islands and atolls will have to evacuate and migrate. Some are already doing so.

They are the victims and yet they have not caused any global warming. Besides, the health costs world-wide of the damaging pollution since 2017 is a whopping US$2263 billion dollars, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

The greedy Chinese military stealing and occupying Philippines islands will have to evacuate, Philippine islands and atolls will be inundated in a few more years. The Chinese are the biggest producers of greenhouse gasses, CO2 and methane, in the world with thousands of coal-fired power plants, followed by the United States.The Philippines has it share of coal-fired power plants when it could have geothermal and solar power plants.

If you want the number of dollars spent on renewable energy power sources, here they are: “The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has estimated supply-side support to renewables at around USD 166 billion in 2017. Total support to renewable power generation was around USD 128 billion in 2017, and transport sector support added a further USD 38 billion for biofuels.”

“The European Union accounted for around 54 % (USD 90 billion) of total estimated renewable subsidies in 2017, followed by the United States, with 14 % (USD 23 billion), Japan with 11% (USD 19 billion), India with 2 % (USD 4 billion) and the rest of the world with slightly less than 9% (USD 15 billion). Subsidies for renewable power generation were dominant in Japan (99 %), China (97 %), the EU (87 %) and India (76 %). Subsidies for biofuels dominated in the United States (61 %) and the rest of the world (71 %).”

Big oil corporations Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total and their lobbying groups have tried to influence EU law in thir  favour by watering down laws that would curb the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Their DNA corporate culture and goals cannot condone or support renewable energy. They are ferocious influencers and a report in The Guardian shows that they spent € 253.3 million lobbying and influencing politicians and EU institutions between 2010 and 2018, according to a report by Corporate Europe Observatory, Food & Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace. That spending is just the tip of a massive iceberg of additional spending which has not been officially reported and kept secret. Let me quote the impact they have had in expanding the climate crises on the world. The Guardian article of one year ago says:
“The report comes after the Guardian’s Polluters series, which revealed that 20 oil and gas companies – including BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total – can be directly linked to a third of greenhouse gas emissions since 1965. The companies – which include multinationals and state-owned firms – are continuing to expand their operations and driving the climate emergency, despite having been aware for decades of their industry’s devastating impact on the planet.”

There is a global conspiracy, it seems, to deny climate change, to playdown the urgency of the crises for the sake of getting more taxpayers money as payouts to billionaire oil companies when millions of people are suffering the drastic effects of the climate change. We have to do all we can to get political and influence the decisions that will save the planet and get out there and stop polluting and plant more trees.

Human Trafficking, Why so Few Convictions?

 

The recruitment and sale of humans is an age-old crime against the rights, freedom and dignity of everyone exploited and forced to work for little or no wages and controlled and trapped by their traffickers and slave-masters. Young women and boys are especially targeted and offered fake jobs and given empty promises to get them to sign documents that put them in debt and under the control of their recruiters. Worse, when trafficked to work in the Philippines or abroad, they are forced to work in brothels, as domestics, in factories and are living mostly in sub-human conditions and are underpaid. Many are brought to brothels and sex parlors, sexually abused and trapped in sex work from which few escape.

 

The “Not for Sale Fund,” an international charity says, “Today, there are approximately 45.8 million people caught in the trap of modern slavery around the world. This includes 10 million children, 15.4 million people in forced marriage, and 4.8 million people in forced sexual exploitation. However, it is difficult to determine exact statistics because so many cases of human trafficking go undetected and unreported.”

 

Poverty and the desire for a life of economic liberty and well-being of one’s family make poor men and women vulnerable and in danger of a life of slavery. Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery and it is facilitated in the Philippines by individuals’ and syndicates aided by corrupt officials. It is a global business worth billions of dollars to traffickers around the world. It is a crime that will never be vanquished unless the victims are healed and cared for and the criminals convicted and jailed. Most criminals operate with impunity and walk free. Only 89 were convicted in 2019 and 73 were convicted in 2020 in the Philippines. 

 

The Philippines is considered a hot spot for human trafficking and slavery and while hundreds of suspected traffickers are arrested, few are convicted. The US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report for 2020 points out how very few convictions there are in a population of 110 million people.

 

In part the report says, “The government convicted 73 traffickers under the anti-trafficking act and related laws (89 traffickers in 2019). Most of the convicted traffickers subjected children to sex trafficking, including 25 who sexually exploited children online (compared to 32 in 2019); three committed labor trafficking (five in 2019).” 

 

This low conviction rate is because some investigators, government social services and rescue NGOs have limited facilities and therapeutic centres to protect, treat and empower the rescued victims of sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking. Many victims after giving statements, staying a few days or weeks in a temporary shelter without therapeutic and psychological intervention, are sent home, traumatized. There, the relatives and friends of the accused trafficker threaten them not to testify. Protection, healing and empowerment are the most important services needed to help the victims and stop human trafficking but they are not available in most cases.

 

When a case does get to court, the delaying tactics by the defence, where endless postponements, allowed by complicit judges, frustrate the victim witness and they give up attending hearings not having testified.They are vulnerable to threats or a payoff. As a result, hundreds of legal cases are dismissed- for lack of evidence- to the frustration of law enforcers. Some other traffickers can recruit the victims again and they return to sex work to pay off debts. The anti-trafficking law needs review and a new section must be added that says victims must be given specified therapeutic care, protection, and professional intervention. This has to be for a time and the victim financially compensated while in the therapeutic centre for a longer period of time until they have healed and are empowered to testify in court. Then they will be provided with aftercare, education and livelihood.

 

There are some success stories, however. Most of the girls in the Preda Foundation Home for trafficked and abused children belong to dysfunctional families and were victims of domestic abuse and violence from an early age. These neglected and abused children then take to the streets to survive and to find freedom from the beatings and sexual abuse in their homes. On the streets, they are most vulnerable to unscrupulous traffickers who pick them up, offer them money, food, clothes, jobs and cheap smart phones. That puts them in the power of the traffickers.

 

When five girls aged 14 to 16 were trafficked by Michael Macaranas in Subic, he brought them to his house and with other men abused them sexually many times. After a tip off, they were rescued by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and put under the protective custody of the Preda Foundation. They were protected, cared for, had many months of therapy and were healed from trauma and empowered to testify against their trafficker Michael Macaranas. He was convicted on two counts of trafficking and was sentenced to life in prison and to pay his victims moral and exemplary damages which he never did. The Preda aftercare helped the victims finish school and lead a happier, better life. That was one more conviction in the annual success rate of an average of 15 convictions by the Preda children.

 

That's because the victims were healed after a few months of Emotional Release Therapy and were self-confident and changed young girls. Their testimony was direct, clear and convincing.

In her decision dated October 7, 2019, Judge Ma. Cristina J. Mendoza-Pizarro conducted a no-nonsense speedy trial, brooked no delaying tactics and noted that the defence of consent did not apply as the minors were forced and tricked into the sexual exploitation, a noteworthy decision.

 

What is needed is a law mandating a speedy trial for traffickers and care, protection, healing, and early presentation of the testimony of the victims of sexual abuse and exploitation. Marathon hearings with no delays, such as the practice in the Olongapo City Family Court under Judge Gemma Theresa Hilario-Logronio.

 

Where justice is delivered without fear or favour, with support and long-term care and after care for victims, many more traffickers and child rapists will be convicted. This is the change that must come.

Understanding Youth And Fighting Social Evil

 

The condition of many hundreds of thousands of youth in the Philippines today is a sorry and pain-filled situation of neglect, physical, emotional, verbal, psychological and sexual abuse. They are a lost generation as broken homes proliferate, hundreds of thousands of couples live together without the commitment of marriage and child protection and child support. Teenagers and adults have children and abandon them. Men and women go their own ways and leave the children with aging grandparents unable to cope with emotionally disturbed and parentless teenagers.

The abandoned youth are without money, are hungry, need support, friendship, care and the chance of a normal life. They join street gangs to survive. Politicians condemn them as youth with criminal minds. They feel unwanted, rejected and without any positive future. They seem to have been abandoned by both church and government.

Alice is the victim of broken home. Her father abandoned her mother and when she was a 14-year old teenager, he showed up again and took her to live with him in Subic. There, he sexually abused her. When she could take it no longer, she did not find a welcome or assistance in the church to help her or in the government agency but she bravely got help and protection from a friend and was brought to a charitable child protection shelter and later filed charges against her biological father.

She is one of hundreds of thousands of children sexually abused daily. An estimated 100,000 girls are trafficked into the sex industry, annually according to Unicef. Since the pandemic hit the Philippines, much of the evil business has gone online. There, the children are sold like commodities to sex customers and delivered to their hotel rooms or apartments for rape as regular as a pizza delivery. That’s how corrupt this country has become, a children’s playground for online pedophiles sending money for sex from abroad. Local pedophiles are having a continual “fiesta of child abuse.”

The machismo culture has a motto: “Get them young.” The children are sometimes supplied by their parents and frequently abused by their biological father or live-in partner of the mother. Then, they are farmed out to others to abuse. You may not know it but child abuse is as common and as frequent as riding a bus.

The abusers claim the child give consent and they are legally covered. The children in reality cannot freely give consent at a young age but the Philippine law allows sex with a child from 12 years old, one of the lowest in the world. In Japan, it is 13 years old. The accused use this provision of the penal code as a defense if ever they are charged in court which is rare and unusual. Parents can pressure the child to say she “loves the older man.” That provision of the penal code is one reason for the proliferation of child sexual abuse and human trafficking of children. Hopefully, the bill that will change the law will be speedily approved by the Senate and it will change the age of consent to 16 years.

One in every four youth- boys and girls- are victims of sexual abuse by biological fathers, live-fathers, grandfathers, relatives, clergy and local pedophiles. Some parents and relatives sexually abuse their young children online to earn money. Every five minutes, a woman or child is raped, according to the research done by Center for Women’s Resources. The degradation and abuse is so pervasive in society that seven- to ten-year old boys are influenced and have been caught having raped five- and six-year old girls. They have been influenced by the child sexual abuse material allowed on the servers of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and viewed on cellphones and the internet.

What kind of society has the Philippines become? Certainly, not a more virtuous, innocent and morally strong society. A serious negative and corrupt influence has eroded the higher moral values that once infused the culture formed by Gospel values of Christianity that was once a faith that was socially active. That has radically changed. It is now more a faith without action. One that is dead in many ways.

The institutional church seems to have abandoned its duty to protect and stand for human rights and children’s and family rights and dignity. Many bishops and conservative priests are silent about clerical child sexual abuse, abuse in the family and society, the spread of sex hotels and trafficking of children and youth. They ignore the plight of young people jailed in sub-human conditions, tortured and abused behind bars.

Those true Christians, priests, bishops and lay people that are living out the social message of Jesus of Nazareth with the true spirt of the gospel are being harassed, threatened, jailed and killed.

The government has for the past many years descended into a quagmire of corruption and moral degradation. Killing suspects with impunity and violating human rights. Too many local governments have supported the sex industry by issuing licenses and permits to bars and clubs and sex hotels, allowing the human trafficking and child abuse to continue and spread.

The children and youth need a vigorous defense from the abuse they suffer. It is all too easy to blame the youth for leaving their homes and living on the streets and stealing to survive. When they have been abused, kicked and beaten and rejected by their unloving parents, where else can they go and survive when all they have is a t-shirt and shorts? They need to be welcomed, understood, sheltered, affirmed and given a chance to find a life when they have no loving, caring family. That is the one thing that we all desire above all else. It is our duty to give them that chance.

We are called to speak out to protect the children from abuse and take a stand and live out the moral values of the gospel, the sacredness of life and the well-being and human rights and dignity of the people and speak and rally against moral evil in society.

How to End Child Labor

 

 

It was a massive international solidarity march in 1999 along the streets of Geneva. Thousands of children and supporters from all over Europe and Asia were there to encourage and support the approval and signing by the world’s nations of the document, “Worse Forms of Child Labor Convention 1999.”

 

I was there with other NGO representatives giving voice to our deep concern for all children and especially the Filipino children that were enslaved in unjust, exploitative labor practices. A huge problem then but an abomination that is still with us today despite the passing of the convention that inspired new child protection laws in the Philippines and around the world.

 

I marched with Filipina activist Cecilia Flores-Oebanda and my friend and fellow child right’s activist Kailash Satyarthi of India who had campaigned and promoted non-violence action against child labour for many years for the children of Asia and in particular India. He was awarded in 2014 the Nobel Peace Prize along with Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan for their work “focusing attention on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain.” They promoted the rights of the child to be free from labor and to have an education.

 

At the Preda Foundation, our team had campaigned since its founding in1974 and continues to work to end all child labor especially the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children. For that work, we were honoured and recognized by the awarding of four nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and other human rights awards. These have helped to highlight the importance of standing against child exploitation which is the challenge and duty of all persons who recognize the rights of the child not to be exploited and abused and turned into commodities and dehumanized laborers especially as sex workers.

 

Twenty-two years after the convention was passed, we are still rescuing teenage girls from sex brothels and motels, sex traffickers and child sex abusers. The victim-survivors are broken and suffering as their dignity was taken from them. This is symbolized in Geneva by the huge 12 metres (39 feet) high sculpture of the “Broken Chair” in front of the Palace of Nations. It is a sculpture in wood (5.5 tons of it) by the Swiss artist Daniel Berset, made  by the carpenter Louis Genève. It is an ordinary chair with one leg broken that reminded us, as we marched under its shadow of the dark cloud of pain, of the broken lives of victims of violence. A reminder of our duty to always stand for and take action to prevent, rescue and heal the victims-survivors of exploitation and abuse.

 

 The dark cloud of deprivation, loss of education, family care and love and personal freedom and loss of dignity and self-confidence so necessary for the development of a child is taken away when the child is maltreated and abused.   The Philippine nation-wide survey of 2011 revealed that there were 2.1 million children aged five to 17 years of age in labor, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) government survey. This has surely increased today due to the economic decline during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey showed that 95 percent of them were in hazardous work, 65 percent of these children were aged 15 to 17 years old. Fifty-eight percent were working on farms, the rest divided to working in mines, on the streets, in sex work or as domestic laborers.

 

Every year  Preda Foundation rescued and saves dozens of abused children. In one of several operations four children were rescued from dehumanizing sex work aged 14 to 17 from sex hotels in Olongapo City. One of them, call her Julie, is only 15 years old. She had been groomed by “friendly” traffickers after she had suffered physical abuse and rejection by her mother and brother. She ran away from home and eventually went to stay in the house of the human traffickers who had groomed her and took her to meet male customers- local and foreign sex tourists- and they collected most of the money. One day, she was brought with several other girls to a sex hotel and there was a rescue of the victims by police and social workers and Julie and other girls were brought to the Preda Home for trafficked girl victims.

 

They were shocked at first at the abrupt arrest of their three traffickers who were taken away by the police and charged with human trafficking and put on trial. Julie and the other three children were brought to the Preda Foundation home. They were welcomed with respect and dignity and given personal needs and a nice bed and shower room and new clothes. They had never been treated with respect and their rights were explained to them and the opportunities to study, learn and have therapy to heal from all the abuse they had suffered since childhood.

 

They realized that for the first time in their lives, they were free of the abusive control of exploiting adults. They felt personal freedom and protected. They never had such freedom of choice before. They had medical treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and were cured.

 

Julie and the others with the guidance of the therapists, counsellors and social workers accepted the opportunity to study, learn and have Emotional Release Therapy. There in the padded therapy room they cried and shouted out all the hurt pains and anger of their lives since childhood. After months of therapy and a happy life in the community where they felt fully accepted, respected and part of a family of twenty children like themselves, they felt stronger, self-confident and empowered. They overcame the fear of their cruel parents and pimps and testified against them in court leading to convictions. They were free from the traffickers for the rest of their lives. Today they are stronger and learning a new livelihood so they can support themselves with a small business helped by the Preda Foundation. These are just a few of the 100,000 or so children trafficked into the sex business every year, according to Unicef. A shocking number of child laborers in the worst form of hazardous exploitation of children.

 

Working together with good people that are determined to end this child labor and with committed government officials that will implement the law, there is hope to greatly reduce the extent of the child labor and exploitation. 

Can President Duterte Make The ISPs Obey The Law?

The massive increase in child sexual abuse videos and images transmitted online over the internet passing through the servers of the Internet service providers (ISPs)- Globe Telecom and PLDT /Smart- has increased from 19,000 in 2019 to 47,937 in 2020 as the result of the lockdown. This is according to the Philippine government Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles speaking for President Rodrigo Duterte.

The child pornography and on-line live streaming of sex acts on Filipino children are continuous horrific heinous crimes as some victims are as young as three years old, among the many thousands sexually abused.

The ISPs and telecommunication corporations have ignored the provision of the 2009 Anti-Child Pornography Law or Republic Act 7995, specifically Section 9 that this writer helped draft and lobbied for strict implementation ever since as published in The Manila Times (The Sunday Times) on many occasions.

No less than President Rodrigo Duterte and his cabinet, in a joint meeting, have issued an order to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to slap sanctions on the telecommunications corporations for non-compliance with the law. This writer has called for penalties against the ISPs and recommended one million pesos a day sanction on each ISP until they show proof that they are complying with the law. Presently, they allegedly escape compliance and agree to pay a small fine rather than obey the law and install blocking software to intercept the child pornography and report it to the authorities as the law demands.

These are the most powerful corporations in the Philippines, not only for financial power, but technological power. They can defy even the government of President Duterte as they are doing at present. In an instant, they can paralyze the nation by cutting off Internet connections and crippling the social media upon which millions depend including the government and the entire economy. We will now campaign through non-government organizations in other countries to pressure their telecommunication corporations to reconsider their partnership with Philippine ISPs Globe Telecom and PLDT/Smart that are non-compliant with Section 9 of RA 9775.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, speaking for President Rodrigo Duterte said as quoted in the media, “All ISPs should also install available technology, program or software to ensure that access to or transmittal of any form of child pornography will be blocked or filtered, according to the law.” That is a powerful order for them to comply. But will they do it?

Who is top dog in this stand-off, which is the most powerful, President Rodrigo Duterte or the presidents and board members of the telecommunications corporations? Will President Duterte and his cabinet really stand strong and compel the ISPs to comply and install and monitor the blocking software?

The ISPs don’t want to do this as they fear losing hundreds of thousands of customers. What kind of evil business is it that is making money by allowing child abusers here and abroad access child pornography and allow child sexual abuse to live-stream through their servers? The arrogance of power knows no limit and the corporations have this kind of power. The software is easily available. Microsoft is just one corporation that can do it effectively using PhotoDNA and VideoDNA technology.

There is a growing movement to repeal section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of the USA that allows the ISPs NOT to be held responsible for what is posted on their servers and networks. After the attack on the Capitol Building in Washington DC driven by social media, that will now change.

The Philippine ISPs are fighting back against Section 9 of RA 9775. They are trying to get an amendment to RA 9775 through the proposed bill of Rizal Second District Rep. Fidel Nograles to members of congress under the guise of strengthening the RA 9775. He is proposing that the most important provision that requires the ISPs to install the child pornography blocking software BE REPEALED! Nograles has filed last year House Bill (HB) 7633 that seeks to remove Section 9 of RA 9775. That is a wrong and immoral proposal. Section 9 is the strongest provision of the law that aims to protect children from child sexual abusers. We can only presume that the ISPs are behind this bill.

Now that President Rodrigo Duterte and his cabinet has correctly come out to support the thousands of Filipino children being sexually abused on-line and in child pornography, that obnoxious bill will die the death it deserves. President Duterte should end his war-on-drugs having done all he can and start a new “war” against child pornography and on-line streaming of child sexual abuse, a true and noble endeavour.

His biggest challengers are the telecommunication corporations. Will he and his government have the courage and power to rise up to meet the ISPs’ arrogant stand of non- compliance with section 9 of RA 9775? Will he reform the NTC and appoint child-friendly defenders?

The question is, “Are the present officials following the command of the ISPs or following President Duterte and his cabinet?” There must be reform of the NTC and imposition of fines of a million pesos a day until compliance is done. Also, a strong legal action by the Department of Justice is needed to enforce the law.

Child defenders can campaign and appeal to the global telecommunication corporations that are in partnership with the Philippine telecommunication corporations to require the Philippines ISPs to be more ethical and lawful. These global companies exercise more corporate responsibility and higher ethical standards. They could decide not to renew contracts with the Philippine ISPs.

Hundreds of thousands of children could be protected and saved from the horrific abuse that they suffer to satisfy the lust and sexual desires of paedophiles and the profit of their enablers. The children are the most important of all in society. The role of governments is to protect the citizens and children are the most vulnerable and need strong action to save and protect them.

The Road To Extinction

What a happy world it would be if all its living species lived in harmony- plants, animals and humans. It’s an utopian dream, some say, impossible in this world of modern urban living, say others. It does happen. In the last remaining forests of the Amazon, the indigenous people have lived for centuries in isolation and in close dependency in harmony with nature. Now they, together with the plants and animals, are being driven to extinction.

The rain forests are being burnt, the wild animals are dying with less habitat and food and the indigenous tribal people are being increasingly infected with the diseases of intruders, the most recent is Covid-19. The natural world is being destroyed. The forests are burnt replaced with palm trees, beef cattle and soya beans. We humans are a ferocious species. Greedy for profit, the corporations mine and excavate the minerals, cut and haul the logs, capture and trade the wild animals, over-fish the oceans and pollute the air. We are dangerously overheating the planet with poisonous greenhouse gases. That temperature increase is killing animal species, damaging sea corals and causing raging bush fires around the globe where animals die. We must understand the cause and act to stop it.

The first place to look is at human nature. Our species has evolved rapidly and unpredictably to the point where we have taken over the earth. The number of wild animals on the earth have been reduced by half since 1970 and the human population has doubled. As a result, animals are becoming extinct 100 times faster. Our expanding population is cutting and destroying the forests, killing and eating the animals and, in the process, provoking and inviting deadly killer viruses to jump from one animal species to humans.

We had Sars, Ebola, HiIV and now Covid-19 to mention a few and more to come. Call it the deadly embrace of nature. Another more deadly virus will attack for which we cannot develop a vaccine and could face extinction ourselves.

It all began with oil, fossil fuels, fertilizers, pesticides and corporate agriculture. Cheaper food in abundance. Then, the scientific community made great discoveries in antibiotics and vaccines. Life expectancy zoomed from 45 to 70 years and the Green Revolution produced more food and populations grew but most remained poor.

In 1898, when the Philippines fought Spanish and then America forces for independence the population was about seven million people scattered over the islands. Then 102 years later, by the year 2000, it was 76 million people. According to the UN projection report by the year 2050, it will be 127 million. Presently, the population of the Philippines is 110 million. Will the nation be able to feed itself? Obviously not. It imports most of its rice and has a semi-starving population of impoverished slum and rural dwellers of 16 million people, if not more. With millions of educated Filipinos migrating and working abroad the future is bleak with social unrest and political turmoil brewing. This Philippine population growth is unsustainable and should it continue at this rate, it would be a doubling of the population every 35 years. That means a population of 152 million in the year 2035 and 304 million by the year 2070. The Philippines is just one example in a global catastrophe of ecological destruction because of uncontrolled population growth in the developing world. There is now only 3 percent of the Philippine primeval rain forest left. In 1900, there was 70 percent forest coverage of the archipelago. The forest dwelling indigenous people of the Philippines are now neglected, abandoned subsistence farmers on bare mountains denuded by corporations owned by local elite and foreign corporations. An ecological crime of gigantic proportions and a lost and stolen natural resource and heritage.

The world population is at present seven billion people, most are in China and India. The world population will continue to increase to 9 billion by 2045, according to UN projections. The continent of Africa where the great remaining rain forests and most of the world’s species of animals live face a very precarious uncertain future and extinction is ongoing at present. There was about 230 million African people in 1950. They made up nine percent of the world population but in 60 years, by 2010, that number had grown to one billion. That was then 15 percent of the world’s population.

By 2050, Africans will make up 24 percent of the world population. This is 2.2 billion people, the UN says. Every 12 to 15 years, we humans add one billion more humans to the earth. They have to live, work, eat, procreate and survive. That demands more land, housing, farming, chemicals and water. Population growth has a huge impact on the ecology and the animals in Africa and the Amazon are losing their habitat and are dying out.

In Africa, about 60 percent of the population is below 25 years of age. There is high unemployment, inequality, poverty, social unrest, corruption and political conflict. These are driving the youth to migrate. Thousands are streaming toward Europe in the hope of a better life. Western countries are absorbing many and some nations are fast becoming multi-cultural and multi-racial. Racists want to stop them. The European population growth, presently stagnant, will soon start growing because of the young migrants.

Climate change, driven by western industrialization, is heating the globe with greenhouse gases. That is drying up once lush African grass lands, rivers are drying out leaving dying reptiles and animals. What is left alive are being hunted to extinction for their tusks and horns or captured and sold internationally to corrupt collectors of wildlife.

The hope for the remaining forests and the natural world is the international movement to save the planet, to reduce global warming and to preserve the environment vital for our survival. We can all join in by working for a clean organic environment, campaigning and speaking out for each other and the animals and creatures with whom we share the earth.

The Rape of Innocence

Child protection is one of the most urgent and serious responsibilities of parents, children, the community and government. We celebrate the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child this November. It establishes the right of every child to a life of peace and security, dignity, fulfilled needs, a happy family, education, freedom, protection from abuse and poverty, right to health, justice and play and happiness. The Convention binds all member nations to respect and implement the rights of the child and act in the best interests of the child.

Before the Convention, the awareness and recognition that the child is the most vulnerable and  needy and the extent of child sexual abuse was unrecognized by the general public. It was the great secret never to be talked about, to be hidden like a pestilence behind closed doors. In many societies, it still is. Reporting of child sexual abuse is improving slowly but has a long way to go. It was and is taboo for many. It is the unspoken evil that, like a monster, would haunt anyone who talked about it. The best way to deal with child sexual abuse, rape and sex slavery was to bury it away and cover it up. Perhaps paedophilia was and is so prevalent that society thought it of little consequence and still does. The paedophiles were and are in positions of power and can influence and condition the rest of society to remain silent. That is why the Convention is so important.

There is now an awakening in society. Many nations have new strict laws and awareness. Children were taught to remain silent and never complain against adults even if they were abused. We heard the old strict caution given to children, “Silence is golden,” “Children could be seen but never heard.” Brave and courageous are the children that come forward and protest and complain. The #MeToo movement creates an environment where speaking out is encouraged. Why has it taken so long? Yet, it is only a tip of a great iceberg of silence that remains, freezing most in fear and shame. Our task is to warm the climate and help them unfreeze.

Millions of people went through school and college and were never warned against child sexual abuse being so prevalent. The Ten Commandments do not explicitly condemn it. Jesus of Nazareth did and placed children as the most important in the Kingdom and said abusers should be cast into the sea with a millstone tied around their necks (Matthew 18:1-7). He had it right and took a strong clear position on it.  But that was ignored by Church leaders over the ages. Not surprising then that clerical sexual abuse of children was and is such a frequent crime that it was ignored and covered up. We have to stand against it and expose it everywhere.

A new educational curriculum in California will teach young children about their bodies and how to protect themselves. Some parents reject such education as if children should not know they can be hurt and abused and must report it. They can and ought to be taught to do so. The LA Times reported, “Roughly 200 protesters showed up outside the state Capitol on Wednesday, some with their children in tow, holding signs that read “No to Explicit Sex Ed” and “Too Much Too, Soon.”

People in less progressive societies do not teach their children to resist abuse and report it. Some consider it even “permissible” for a man to do it. Paedophiles love the fear and silence that surrounds child abuse. It allows abuse with impunity. In India, a child is raped every 15 minutes.

In the Philippines, a child or woman is raped every 75 minutes and little is done to challenge the culture of silence. About 80 percent or 32,000,000 children suffer from violence. Seven million of these children between the ages of 10 to 18 are sexually abused every year. Twenty percent or 1.4 million are under six years old. Boys are more likely to be raped, according to a UNICEF study. They will grow up with anger and hatred in their hearts and be more prone to be violent in their family or society and turn to crime and insurrection.

What do small children know and say about it? If given a chance, they will tell the powerful truth. In a recent court case in Olongapo City, a three-year old girl and her six-year old sister, under the protection and care of the Preda Foundation, testified against their biological father. She clearly told the court what happened. “He poked his fingers into my “pepe” (vagina).Then her six-year old sister testified clearly and said she saw the rape happening and tried to pull her father off her little sister to no avail.

The judge, Judge Gemma Theresa B.Hilario-Logronio, said in her decision that the children were clear and consistent in their testimony. The children’s father was convicted to life in prison. This is a strong fearless judge that applies the law based on the clear testimony of the witnesses and with supporting medical evidence. A few weeks ago, she convicted another rapist, a live-in partner of the mother of a 13-year old child cared for by the Preda Foundation, and gave two sentences of life in prison.

Justice is a powerful healing for victims of sexual abuse and just enlightened judges are an essential part of the healing process. We have to create an environment where children are empowered to come forward and tell their ordeal without fear, to a welcoming and supportive court and community. Creating this is the duty and moral obligation of all of us.

Human Trafficking: A Scourge On Humanity

Human trafficking and child sexual abuse is still alive and thriving in the Philippines. Online sexual abuse of children is everywhere, it seems, and more has to be done by the telecommunication corporations to stop it. That’s why this heinous crime against small children to satisfy the sexual lust of foreign pedophiles is so abhorrent. Shame on all who allow it to happen with impunity. The Philippines has become the hub for such crimes. The National Bureau of Investigations (NBI) in Olongapo and from Manila has rescued 18 women and children and arrested three human traffickers recently.

In Angeles City this week, two children were rescued and two pimps, both minors, were arrested and turned over to the social workers of Angeles City. A US national, Nicholas Pyant, was arrested by the Philippine National Police in a room with children and should be charged with sexual assault and rape of young children. Pyant was under surveillance for weeks and is allegedly a known child predator.

In Barrio Baretto, Olongapo City minors are brought to sex hotels to be sold as sex slaves to customers. They are a hub for spreading the coronavirus and human trafficking. The sex industry exists for the sexual gratification of foreign sex tourists and rich locals and earns huge profits for the foreign and local owners of the sex bars and hotels.

The social workers of the Preda Foundation are very active in intelligence gathering and provided vital information and assisted in the recent rescue of the trafficked women and minors in the Barretto night club district. The four minors were referred to the Preda Home for Girls where they are safe from the sex mafia and the families of the human traffickers. At the Preda home, they receive full support, affirmation, counselling, emotional release therapy and education and value formation to prepare them to have a normal, happy life. You can view life in the Preda Homes on Preda Foundation Youtube channel https://youtu.be/G0fFNmHSYic

The Preda home will assist the minors in bringing charges against their abusers and traffickers. Together, we win several convictions of traffickers and child rapists every year. In 2018, we had 18 convictions. In 2019 we helped the children win 20 convictions leading to life sentences. This year 2020, 13 convictions have been won so far. There would be more but due to the pandemic the courts were closed.

Fighting for justice is a very important healing therapy for the children to get justice and to testify in court what the abusers did to them. Most victims/survivors are teenagers. Some are only three years old and six-year-old. They can then have a happy, secure life knowing that their traffickers and rapists are behind bars and can abuse no more children. Some of the teenage children victims of human trafficking also want to be advocates for children’s rights and to speak out as is their right of free expression. They volunteer and sign on to be child rights advocates, a brave and courageous action to take. While we adults do everything to protect their identity, we cannot stop them from exercising their human and civil rights to speak out against human trafficking and advocate children’s rights.The #MeToo movement is a way for women and children to experience freedom from abuse and to fight for justice and many young survivors want to be part of it.

It is adults that allow the sexual exploitation of children in the first place.The horrific child sex abuse business that is a scourge today in the Philippines is due to the former presence of the US Naval Base at Subic Bay, Olongapo City. Thousands of women and children were exploited and abused in hundreds of sex bars catering to the US Navy personnel. It was a wonderland of sex fantasy and abuse. Pedophiles flocked there and the sex mafia systematically and efficiently allowed them to sexually exploit, rape and abuse children. The government allowed and promoted it and the rich made millions of dollars.

In 1983, I discovered a child sex abuse syndicate selling children as young as nine years old to US sailors. I broke that story in the media and instead of being recognized for taking a stand for justice and truth and child protection, I was vilified by local government officials at the time and I was brought to trial at the Bureau of Immigration to be deported. The charge was that my child protection work and writing was bringing Olongapo City and its officials into disrepute. They felt I was blaming them for the child sex industry. They denied all responsibility despite a high profile military court case in Guam that brought a US officer to trial for child sexual abuse in Olongapo City. A sad state of affairs indeed.

That’s how journalists and child rights campaigners fighting for the dignity of the Filipinos were dealt with. However, I won my case, was found innocent and continued my work protecting human rights from my base in the Preda Foundation. When the city officials said they would close the Preda home for children, I said it would be better to close the US Naval Base. An idea was born and I started a “Life after the Bases” campaign to close the US military bases and convert them to civilian economic zones. It was amazing then how many people, in the Catholic Philippines, were hostile and negative to that vision of hope and help.

However, against all opposition, I promoted that idea and it caught on and a coalition of civil society members was formed that eventually persuaded the Philippine Senate to vote against the continuation of the US military bases. The conversion plan I formulated was eventually implemented and Subic Bay is now a thriving industrial area giving jobs with dignity to thousands of Filipinos. Human trafficking never really ceased and years later it began to make a comeback as tourism was promoted. So, today we are still fighting this scourge against humanity and protecting Filipino children.