By Perry Diaz
Little did United States Ambassador Harry Thomas realize that his comments on sex tourism and child trafficking during a roundtable discussion with a group of appellate court justices would ignite a maelstrom of controversy. “I estimate that maybe up to 40 percent of foreign men who come here come for sexual tourism and that is unacceptable,” he said. “That is not something I’m proud of. That’s not something you should be proud of.”Thomas said that some karaoke bars and clubs along Roxas Boulevard near the US Embassy were reported to be “hot spots” for alleged sex trade. “Corruption allows these notorious establishments to continue to operate. Local officials will look the other way or accept favors. These officials are doubly guilty,” he said. He then challenged the legal profession to eliminate the “scourge.”
Nobody questioned his remarks except for him saying that about 40% of foreign men who come here come for sexual tourism. That caused uproar among the media, government officials, and private citizens who bombarded him with criticism. Many want him expelled as persona non grata. Thomas was probably scratching his head wondering what did he do wrong to create the brouhaha over his “sex tourism” remarks?
I’ll tell you why, Ambassador Thomas. You’re talking to Filipinos where “hiya” – or shame — is niched in their psyche. There are certain things that Filipinos would not publicly talk about. But you were absolutely right about it, “sex tourism” – or on a larger scale, “human trafficking” — is a major, major problem in our country. It has been for decades. Sad to say, the government turns a blind eye to the problem because it’s part of a bigger and more complex problem. So it did not come as a surprise that government officials zeroed in on your “40%” statement, which put you in a “no-win” situation. Had you merely said, “a large number of foreign men” instead of “40% of foreign men,” nobody would have reacted furiously. That was your mistake, Ambassador Thomas.
State of denial
But what I find appallingly strange was how government officials reacted to Thomas’s comments. In particular, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima seems to be in denial of the existence of sex tourism in the country. The other day, a news report said: “De Lima said she sent a letter to Thomas on Monday asking him to clarify the statement he made in a judicial conference on human smuggling two weeks ago that 40 percent of male foreign tourists come to country for its flesh trade.” And naively, she told the media: “I think almost all countries have (citizens) engaged in (the sex) trade. But to say that our problem is that big, I really don’t know.”
Human trafficking
Perhaps, De Lima should read the U.S. State Department’s “2006 Trafficking in Persons Report.” According to the report, “the Philippines is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor.”
In my article, “Human Trafficking in the Philippines” (PerryScope, June 23, 2006), I wrote: “Sex tourism is one of the most lucrative ‘human trafficking’ businesses in the Philippines. Sex tourists from Asian countries outnumber the non-Asians. Child prostitution is in high demand from pedophiles, many of who are rumored to be from Europe. Another aspect of child trafficking is pornography. Children are made to pose naked for pornographic materials including videos and web sites. In most cases, the parents were willing accomplices, thinking that their children posing nude is not going to do them any harm. According to a UNICEF report, ‘child trafficking was one of the three biggest problems affecting Filipino children.’
“ ‘Human trafficking’ has become a national stigma that Filipinos don’t want to talk about. People — particularly the family members of the victims — are too embarrassed to talk about it. When the victims vanished from their towns or barrios, nobody would ask the parents where their children went. They knew where they went.”
Apology
During a media interview at his Forbes Park residence last October 6, Thomas was adamant amidst calls for him to apologize over his “40%” statement. “I’m not going to apologize. I will never apologize for trying to combat child sex. I will never apologize for trying to combat children being forced to labor. I will never apologize for trying to help children in Smokey Mountain,” he said.
But the following day, he relented and sent a text message to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario: “I am sending you a response expressing regret for my comments. I should not have used the 40 percent statistic without the ability to back it up. I regret any harm that I may have caused.” The day after, Malacañang accepted Thomas’s apology and declared the issue “closed.”
But is it really? My take is that Thomas was merely withdrawing the “40%” statistic since he couldn’t back it up. It was an inconsequential issue that only distracted attention from the real issue, which is human trafficking. Human trafficking should remain “open” and the government should – nay, must! — address it.
And this is where the government seems unprepared to do. It’s a much more complex problem and it intertwines with other problems we’re having in the country. Human trafficking is the symptom of a disease that’s gnawing at the moral fabric of our society. It’s destroying our culture and us.
Sex tourism paradise
In an article posted in the Internet titled, “Philippines, sex tourism paradise,” Zara Majidpour of Shahrzad News interviewed Ninotchka Rosca – a well-known Filipino author, journalist, feminist and human rights activist. Rosca was asked: “Although prostitution is illegal in the Philippines, it has become a popular destination for sex tourism. What caused this?”
After giving a brief primer on how prostitution started in the Philippines, Rosca said: “With the IMF-World Bank supporting the Philippine government’s policy of tourism development and the need to pay for massive loans to build the infrastructure for tourism, it was an easy government decision to sell the women of the Philippines. The Catholic Church has said nothing/little about this, by the way.”
Could that be the reason why the government seems to treat the problem of sex tourism with benign neglect?
Poverty
But going only after the traffickers and predators will not solve the problem. The government has to get to the root cause of the problem, which is poverty. It is not a coincidence that the victims of human trafficking are poor. They exist day to day and would consider themselves lucky if they survived each day. And as long as poverty exists, there are predators who would prey on the poor particularly the young and under-aged children.
That is the biggest challenge the government is faced with — the eradication of poverty. Indeed, poverty is the real “scourge.”
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