The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has vowed to continue its efforts to get the Philippines off the US Human Trafficking watchlist.
Even after the US State Department reported significant progress in combatting human trafficking cases from the Philippines, the BI is far from resting on its laurels.
Immigration commissioner Ricardo David Jr. said that the improvement of the country’s standing in the December 2010 human trafficking scorecard based on the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Interim Assessment is a clear and encouraging sign that the bureau’s relentless drive against trafficking has paid off.
According an April 2011 report, the Philippines has “demonstrated significant progress in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2010 TIP Report."
Statistics showed that, from August to December 2010 alone, immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and other airports stopped more than 27,000 passengers —most of them overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) disguised as tourists— from leaving.
David commended immigration personnel at the NAIA for doing a good job over the past several months in stopping the departure of thousands of undocumented OFWs who are victims of illegal recruitment and human trafficking syndicates. Earlier this month, David had told immigration officers in NAIA to “step-up their vigilance" in the campaign against human trafficking.
He also recognized the accomplishments of former BI officer-in-charge Ronaldo Ledesma, who started the measures and policies that enabled the bureau to offload the biggest number of trafficking victims in the agency’s history.
According to the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, the Philippines has made ‘significant progress’ in its anti-human trafficking campaign since the release of the State Department’s 2010 report.
The combined efforts of all member agencies of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) resulted in the conviction of 21 human traffickers from July 2010 to March this year. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said that the 21 convictions during the past nine months were a far cry from the 25 convictions in the past seven years.
During the assessment period, nine sex traffickers were convicted, with prison sentences ranging from six years to life imprisonment. One immigration official was slapped with criminal charges, while 19 immigration personnel are facing administrative raps for trafficking-related activities.
Last June, the Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered prosecutors to make trafficking cases a priority. Later, the Supreme Court also issued a circular instructing courts to expedite the deposition of trafficking cases. In March, the IACAT launched a 24-hour hotline for human trafficking victims. Since its launch, over 750 emergency calls have been received.
The DOJ said that it expects the Philippines’ record to improve when the State Department releases its next report on human trafficking in June.
