Child Prostitution in

the Philippines

SOME FACTS

There are four hundred to five hundred

thousand people being prostituted in the
Philippines, most of which are women or young
girls. But prostitution also affects children, both
boys and girls, older males, and transvestites.
A recent study showed that seventy-five
thousand children are being prostituted in the
Philippines.
Children from ages eleven to fifteen reported
that their relatives introduced them to
prostitution.
Filipino men are the main users of Filipinas in
prostitution.

PROSTITUTION TOURISM

In 1998, aPhilippine Adventure

Tour,would costone thousandsix
hundred and forty-five dollars, wherea
man can purchase a prostitute for as
little as twenty-four US dollars, and
Allan Gaynor, the owner and operator
ofthe tour, promised men they would
neverbe alone on this trip and would
recommend to have sex with a
different girl everyday, sometimes two
if they could handle it.
Many tourists go to the Philippines for
the sex alone. They know they can get
good sex at a cheap rate.
Every year thirteen thousand
Australians visit Angeles City in the
Philippines, which is a center for
prostitution surrounding the former
TOURISM
Clark U.S. Air Force base.

PROSTITUTES.

SEX TOURISM
CONTINUED..
Tourists mostly from Australia,
the United States and Great
Britain use these prostitutes.
Like it or not, these tourists
engage in sexual acts with
mostly underage girls that work
at bars or on streets.
These prostitution tourists and
the sex tours given throughout
the Philippines cause child
prostitution to remain alive.
Tourists pay a certain amount to
the prostitute, and the
prostitutes pay a bar fine so
they are able to leave the bar
with a guy or to walk the streets
for business. The fine is usually
about twelve hundred pesos.

MORE
FACTS

The Philippines ranks

fourth in the world when
it comes to child
prostitution.
Three thousand three
hundred and sixty six
more children are forced
every year into
prostitution.
Prostitution is not a
business, it is an
industry in the
Philippines.

THESE BOYS WERE VICTIMS

OF CHILD PROSTITUTION.

WHY DO CHILDREN
BECOME PROSTITUTES?

One main reason for child prostitution

is their living conditions. Most of these
children live in impoverished conditions
in semi-rural or urban conditions and
sometimes are victims of sexual abuse
at home. They run away and become
desperate, and in turn they become
child and young adult prostitutes.
Often, parents do not have jobs and
cannot find work so they force their
children into prostitution to support the
family.
Poverty pushes prostitution.

CAN THEY ESCAPE THE SEX

TRADE?

It is said that many of these children never truly

rehabilitate.
They are psychologically damaged and the longer they
spend being a prostitute the harder it is to overcome the
trauma.
A street educator named Louie Orpea, from the Philippines,
says even if these children get out of prostitution many of
them catch the common STD Gonorrhea. Some would try to
avoid getting it by drinking water with TIDE detergent.
They may face fertility and pregnancy problems,
malnourishment, and tuberculosis. The sexually
transmitted disease known as AIDS or HIV, is becoming a
very serious threat to these children.
Many go through the depression that molested children go
through.

NUMBERS

In Cebu City, there were fifteen hundred registered prostitutes in

1993, which rose to forty five hundred in 1997.
In Davao City there were eighty prostitution establishments in the
year of 1993 and by 1997 there were one hundred thirty five.
Also in Davao City , in 1993 there were eight hundred and sixty eight
registered prostitutes and by the first half 1996 there were onethousand five-hundred twenty-five.

ANGELES CITY
in the Philippines

Considered the sex capital, and also known as the

area.
In this area alone, seventy five percent of five hundred
prostitutes are children.
There is a website called ClubHombre.com, which is a
registered website for sex tourism around the world,
stating that Angeles City has the most satisfying and
cheap sex around. The Filipina women are friendly and
will treat you as a boyfriend the entire time you are
with her.
Even while the US Clark Air Force Base was in use,
these GIs referred to the twelve thousand bar girls as
LBFM better known as Little Brown F**king
Machines.

ANGELES CITY
Men pick up
women off the
street in this
sex infested
city.

These are
prostitutes
laughing with
each other as
they walk down
Fields Avenue in
Angeles City.
They call out the
name Joe to
every male,
pertaining to the
soldiers or GI
Joes that had

Men from Australia

enjoying the company of a
few women at the Blue
Boar Inn. They visit
Angeles City twice a year
and they say that the
journey keeps them
young.

SO CALLED BENEFITS of
PROSTITUTION

Most of these Philippine towns are proprostitution, so it makes it easier for

prostitution to continue.

Some of the parents and even the mayor, Augusto

Kamatoy, will discuss the economic benefits that
these children receive from their patrons. Some
including: payment for schooling, new clothing,
pocket money, and even funded civic projects. Some
children will flaunt these things in trying to get
other children to join the sex trade.

It has become very easy money, because sex will

never go out of style.

The emphasis on labor export to support the

balance of payment deficits has contributed to the
trafficking of Filipinas to Japan.

CORRUPTION OF
OFFICIALS

There have been many cases where

police officers and public officials
have sexually assaulted and
exploited underage prostitutes.
The Congressman Romeo Jalosjos
was charged with raping a twelve
year old girl. He was the first
government official to be charged on
sexual accounts.
A former Representative of Quezon,
Manolet Lavides took part in the
prostituting of four young girls at
Novaliches High School.
In 1997, the Mayor of Angeles City,
Edgardo Pamintuan was found to be
involved in the case of a sixteen year
old model that was being prostituted
by her talent manager, Jojo Veloso.

HISTORY OF COMFORT WOMEN

During World War Two, the number of comfort

women that were among Asian descent falls
between eighty and two hundred thousand.
Of the one hundred and sixty nine comfort women
survivors, more than half of them were under the
age of twenty.
An enormous demand of prostitution had been
established during the Vietnam War and since then
by the presence of US military bases.
Many of these service men had temporary wives
while in the Philippines, fathered a child and then
fled.

Beginning in 1931 to 1932

and throughout wars, the
Japanese Government
recruited women and young
girls by force for their sexual
pleasure in the Japanese
Military.

HISTOR
Y
They often didnt
have adequate food
or medical care and
lived in very poor
living conditions
while in servitude.

These women were often

beaten and would be used by
forty to fifty men a day,
everyday.

WHATS BEING DONE TO HELP THEM?

ANTI TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS ACT

RA9208

Finally passed in 2003, the Philippines is the first country in

Southeast Asia to come up with an act to protect women and
children against trafficking, prostitution, pornography and
involuntary forced labor.
Penalties can lead from six years to life imprisonment and fines of
up to two million pesos.
For those who interact or buy the services of prostitution are
usually penalized for a first offense with six months of community
service and a fine of fifty thousand pesos and for second and
succeeding offenses face imprisonment of one year and a fine of
one hundred thousand pesos.
Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Labor and
Employment and the Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration are mandated by RA9208 to come up with
programs for Filipinos who are and have been trafficked overseas
and for the safety and prevention of this to further happen.

The trafficking law is for

both national and
international efforts. Which
means that departments such
as the Department of Social
Welfare and Development,
the Department of Justice,
Bureau of Immigration,
Philippine National Police,
Department of Interior and
Local Government, and local
government units are also
mandated to initiate programs
for those victims, and for the
prevention of anymore
trafficking.

What else is
being done?

THERE IS HOPE.

In 1999 the United States introduced the Purple Rose Campaign. It is an

international operation that aims at creating opposition to the prostitution and sexual
exploitation of women and children.
ReachOut International Foundation is a reproductive health center that includes a
clinic, pharmacy, laboratory and an education program.
Philippine Children's Fund of America is the most widely funded program in
America. It is a stable and viable community that upholds the rights, welfare and
strong desire for achievement of Filipino families, especially the children.
Bahay Bata Center in Angeles City, Philippines is an institution that takes care of
street children, orphans and abused children. It was founded by a few local
businessmen and it provides children with a home, education and some sort of
spiritual guidance for them now and for the future. Rotary Club Clark Centennial
helps raise funds to keep this place running.
Ahon Sa Kalye is a program that was launched in 2002, which is a totally non-profit
and non-governmental program. It is a half-way home for problematic children with
the law and street children and gives assistance to those abused or sexually
exploited. They also have medical and educational programs for these children.

PROSTITUTION

Pursuing a client.

Asian prostitutes in a
brothel.

Waiting for clients.

Very young impoverished

teen prostitute in Manila,
Philippines.

CONCLUSION

Prostitution has been around for many decades, starting mostly

during the Vietnam War. The Philippines had many victims
including women and children, becoming sex servants and
working with sex feints to try and support their families. To those
patrons, it is a form of entertainment and a good time, but they
are degrading the lives and worth of those victims who do it only
for the money. Much of the people living in impoverished
conditions do not have the simple things such as food and water,
let alone a good paying job. Sexuality is different all over the
world, but many dont choose to start at such a young age, and
after all, many of them could never overcome the trauma. If so
many government officials and tourists are causing this demand,
the sex trade industry will never end. Hopefully with new efforts
finally being put forward, it will aid in the helping to end child
prostitution in the Philippines and in other places around the
world.

"There has been no greater mass

crime that I know of . . . that has
been committed against modern
women, modern-day women, in
the 20th century."- Brig. Gen.
Vorley M. Rexroad (Ret.),
January 17, 2001.

REFERENCES

Cohen and Milstein,Hausfeld and Toll. (2001, July) Japan's Mass Rape and Sexual
Enslavement of Women and Girls from 1932-1945: The "Comfort Women" System.
Retrieved November 13,2007 from http://www.cmht.com/cases_cwcomfort2.php.
DH Productions.(2005, December), Angeles City. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from
http://www.dexterhorn.com/country/asia/philippines.htm.
Mydans, Seth. (1989, February). In a Philippine Town, Child Prostitution, Despite
Protests, Is a Way of Life. Retrieved from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?
res=950DEFDF1430F936A35751C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1http://
images.google.com/imgres?
imgurl=http://www.harrythehorse.com/2005/2005images/sep/01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://
www.harrythehorse.com/2005/september.htm&h=480&w=640&sz=56&hl=en&start=8
&um=1&tbnid=5i_53HVw7kqFyM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq
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National Laws. (2006, September). Retrieved on November 13, 2007 from:
http://www.interpol.int/public/children/sexualabuse/nationallaws/csaphilippines.pdf
Solidarity Philippines Australia Network. KASAMA Vol. 17 No. 4(2003). Retrieved on
November 13,2007 from
http://cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/2003/V17n4/AntiTraffickingAct.htm
Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. (2007, June).Charities in the Philippines. Retrieved
November 13, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charities_in_the_Philippines.
World Children Organization. Report on Philippines Children. Retreived November
12, 2007 from
http://world-children.org/WCO%20web%20images/homepage/phil_cond3.htm.

More than ever before, prostitution has become institutionalized, organized, and globalized (i.e. through
trafficking and the internet). If we look at the streets around us we see the explosion in budget hotels which
are so clean but not so good, the all pervasive sight of girly bars and the numerous high class clubs and
establishments that seem to cater for so many well to do clientele. Different forms of prostitution thus exist:
street prostitution, bars, brothels, akyat-barko, massage parlors, escort services, sex tourism, cybersex,
local & international sex trafficking. Prostitution in the Philippines has become a de facto legal industry.6
How many are involved in prostitution?
Even back in the summer of 1982, Manila was depressingly tagged at the biggest brothel in Asia. There
were 50,000 registered hospitality girls in the tourist entertainment in the early 70s, and in 1987 there
were 300,000 bar girls not to mention the unlicensed ones who were estimated to number about ? of the
national figure then.7 In 1998 it was estimated that there were at least 400,000 to 500,000 prostituted
persons in the Philippines with 75,000 of these being children.8 In her Anti-Prostitution Act (Senate Bill
No. 2341) Senator Pia S. Cayetano cites the number of women being exploited in prostitution in the
Philippines now ballooning to 800,000.9