Everything had a price in the Philippine city of Olongapo.
One pound of rice was $0.5.
A 20-pack Marlboro was $3.
A hotel room would be $11.
A virgin girl was $900.
However, in 1987, young Rosario Baluyot was only priced at $4.
No one was certain of Rosario’s age. Some say she was twelve, others say she was younger, but many “consumers” used that to their advantage. Dr. Heinrich, an Austrian doctor, is one of them. He brought her and her young friend, Jessie Ramirez, to a hotel where he sexually abused them. Rosario died seven months later. Her death was a result of a cervical infection after parts of an electronic sex toy were discovered inside her genitalia.
Following her death, the Regional Trail Court of Olonngapo City sentenced Heinrich to life imprisonment after being charged with the rape and homicide of Rosario. Yet, the Supreme Court of the Philippines acquitted the regional court’s decision, ordered him to pay $500, and deported him back to Austria.
Heinrich returned home, while Rosario died alone in the streets.
To be a child in the Philippines is to live with the possibility of being trafficked for sexual exploitation.
In a report by the International Justice Mission and University of Nottingham Rights Lab (2023), nearly half a million children in the Philippines are subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation through the production of digital content to be purchased by pedophiles and offenders.
However, there is a clear contradiction in the reports and statistical data reported by the local governments and international institutions concerning the issue. In the 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, the Philippine government was recognized for meeting “the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” which includes the conviction of traffickers and investigation of such erroneous crimes. Despite prostitution remaining illegal, Philippine cities, such as Olongapo, still cultivate hubs and bars dedicated to prostitution and sexual exploitation “even actively backed by the state” (Paz, 2020, p.35).
The prevalence of child trafficking in the Philippines is closely intertwined with the nation’s remnants of Filipino women during the nation’s periods of colonization, weakness in the legal system, and institutional poverty.
Amidst the American occupation in the Philippines, American Naval and Military bases, namely in Clark and Olongapo, have served as hotspots for sex work and trafficking. Sexual services catering to U.S. military personnel were institutionalized and sponsored by the government through “pink health certificates,” posted on bulletin boards to identify Filipino women infected with sexually transmitted diseases (Enrile & Weiss, 2019). In 1914, shortly after the Japanese military forces landed in the island of the northern island of the Philippines, Filipino women were forcibly removed from their homes and provinces by Japanese soldiers to work as sex slaves in the area named “comfort stations,” where over 1,000 women and girls were abducted, coerced and raped under a Japanese sanction system of sexual slavery.
Even with the independence garnered by the Philippines 125 years ago, foreigners and tourists can still see, written on Olongapo’s entrance arch: “Home of the most beautiful women in the world.”
The remnants of colonialism still stand the test of time as brothels and sex bars catering to foreigners, specifically from developed nations, serve as a main contributor to the city’s revenue (Jeffreys, 1999).
In a debt-ridden country and just recently recovering from a 9.6% economic contraction brought on by COVID, sex work has transformed into a means to survive. Filipino children often face the internal battle that follows them in a state of poverty: sacrificing their families or sacrificing themselves. Children choose the latter as a form of moral repayment to their parents and families.
Jeannette Ampog, Executive Director of Talikala Incorporated, a nongovernmental organization run by women for women forced into the sex trade in Davao City, could only worry as the poverty of the Philippines brings and, sometimes, returns children into sex slavery.
“It is poverty; it is economic hardship that families are facing,” said Ms. Ampog in an interview. “There is an ingrained culture that, as children, we need to help our families, and sometimes it means being exploited.”
An exchange occurs between the child and the offender. After contacting the young victims, the perpetrator would fund the child’s education, food, and even housing but chain them with sexual debt. The gravity and abhorrence of these requests were exacerbated in one of Talikala’s cases, where a Hawaiian man contacted a young Filipino girl and showered her with luxurious gifts: a new phone, a camera, and full tuition for her sister’s studies at university.
However, all these gifts had a condition.
In return, he asked for naked photos of the girl and for her to perform sexual intercourse with another young child in front of the camera. With the desperation of poverty and lack of government assistance, the benefit of $180 outweighs the trauma of sexual exploitation.
In tandem with poverty, the Philippines’ faulty legal system aids in the expansion of child sexual exploitation. In cases such as Rosario’s cases, institutions of justice come to full public view and criticism when pedophiles are acquitted at the cost of a child’s life. Cases such as the acquittal of Heinrich are a historical testament to the loopholes, such as the definition of the age of consent and penalties of statutory rape utilized by perpetrators.
Human rights lawyer and former Filipino legislator Atty. Neri Colmenares specifically highlights the lack of implementation in the Philippine legal system. Despite developing child-trafficking laws to penalize traffickers and perpetrators, such as Republic Act No. 9208, the Philippines still maintains an increasing amount of child sexual exploitation due to insufficient fulfillment of such penalties and the misdirection of legal prosecution which are directed at sex workers instead of the consumers.
“The framework of the Philippines is very victim-blaming,” said Atty. Colmenares. “If you notice, there have been victims of trafficking, but these syndicates, most of the time, go scot-free – trafficking cannot be done without the connivance of government officials.”
With the deep cuts of colonialism, poverty, and politics bleeding into the rise of child trafficking, a tangible solution becomes an ever-present need. Non-governmental heeded the call and dire situation of Filipino children, serving as torchbearers and hands-on assistance in saving prostituted children from sex bars and brothels. The People’s Recovery, Empowerment, and Development Assistance Foundation (PREDA) and the previously mentioned Talikala Incorporated are some front-runners in such advocacies.
Founder and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Fr. Shay Cullen recalls the foundation's endeavors in disclosing child trafficking rings in the US military base in the Philippines.
“We started a home for girls,” said Fr. Cullen. “Our home for the victims of human trafficking and sexual abuse continues today with a therapeutic center for the healing and empowerment of child victims and filing of legal cases in which we have a lot of success.”
Beyond removing children from exploitative and abusive environments, PREDA and Talikala call for justice and accountability by pursuing legal action against perpetrators.
“The biggest challenge of our work is on the legal side,” said Emmanuel Drewery, PREDA Executive Director. “We don’t just accept children in our shelter sometimes; we do the case build-up ourselves.”
The nobility of the work done by non-governmental organizations is undeniable. Yet, with a deeply rooted issue, the local and international governments must join in actively addressing child trafficking, specifically through national accountability and education. To safeguard the rights of children, national authorities must also adopt more decisive legal action in addressing criminal cases committed by individuals entering the Philippines for sex tourism. The slow legal system will provide a wedge for international consumers to either evade legal sanctions or continue abusing minors.
“We always write about how local and national officials are complicit in the abuse and trafficking of these girls when they are given permits and licenses to sex bars,” said Francisco Bermido Jr., Vice-President of PREDA, “There will always be challenges when speaking truth to the authorities.”
Education and awareness regarding the matter were raised as a suggestion in the interviews. A child’s understanding of their rights and the state’s inherent responsibility to protect them would provide an avenue for children vulnerable to trafficking to be aware of sources and outlets to seek assistance before they are brought into exploitative situations.
The denial of child exploitation undermines and disrespects the thousands of children killed, raped, and abused for their means of survival in a poverty-stricken country. Awareness must be enforced into mobilizing and supporting the upheaval of child trafficking in nations, specifically in the Philippines, so that children such as Rosario’s life would not cost only $4.