By Joel D Adriano Southeast Asia
Dec 20, 2011
MANILA - When United States ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas Jr claimed that 40% of male foreign tourists to the country visited only for sex, the off-the-cuff comment became a diplomatic incident. The senior emissary made the statement in October during a roundtable discussion on human trafficking at which he blamed corrupt local officials for involvement in the flesh trade.
The claim elicited furious denials from Philippine officials and Thomas later backed away from the exact figure. Philippine Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez countered that official statistics show 55% of tourists arrive in the Philippines for shopping and beaches. By any honest measure, however, the Philippine flesh trade catering to foreigners is growing in size and sophistication and by some estimates is starting to rival Thailand as a global sex tourism hub.
The Philippines' tourism industry is a regional laggard, underscoring the country's security problems, poor infrastructure and unimaginative marketing campaigns. Last year's figure of 3.5 million tourists marked an all-time high, but paled in comparison to most of the country's regional neighbors. In comparison, Malaysia received 24.5 million tourists, Thailand nearly 16 million and tiny Singapore 11.6 million in 2010.
While the total number of visitors may be small, the number of sex tourists is believed to be growing. Males make up over 65% of all tourist arrivals. A leaked US diplomatic cable identified a number of Philippine sex tourism hubs, including Sabang Beachin Puerto Galera, Mindoro province. Sex workers, or "sexcorts", interviewed by this correspondent noted that the cities of Cebu,Davao and Angeles City and Boracay island were easy places to find work.
Former labor under secretary Rene Ofreneo recently said that the number of Filipinos engaged in the sex trade was likely about the same size as the country's manufacturing workforce of around 850,000 workers, with around half of them under the age of 18.
The Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), meanwhile, warned that the Philippines could soon rivalThailand as a sex tourism capital, including for globe-trotting pedophiles. A recent Deutsche Welle special report claimed that the Philippine sex industry was the fourth-largest contributor to gross national product (GNP).
Economists say that entrenched poverty, where nearly 40% of the population lives on less than US$2 per day according to Asian Development Bank statistics, is a major push factor into the trade. Policy think-tank Ibon Foundation recently recommended that the government focus on sustainable poverty reduction and additional investments in public education, health, housing and infrastructure to curb the burgeoning sex trade.
But as US ambassador Thomas suggested in his hotly contested remarks, official complicity is part of the problem. A growing number of public officials have been accused as enablers or patrons of the trade in underage girls.
For instance, Zamboanga congressman Romeo Jalosjos was recently convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl who was offered to the politician by a pimp, according to court proceedings. Another former congressman, Manolet Lavides, was recently fingered for involvement in the prostituting four high school students at the Manila-based Novaliches High School.
Two mayors, meanwhile, were recently accused having sex with minors. Binan mayor Bayani Alonte has been charged with raping a 16-year-old high school student who was reportedly doing modeling jobs on the side. Angeles City mayor Ed Pamintuan has been accused of being involved in the case of another 16-year-old model who was prostituted by her so-called "talent" manager.
Cash allure
Many young Filipino girls end up in so-called KTV bars, nightclubs, seedy restaurants and massage parlors, a number of which are fronts for prostitution dens where customers can have sex for a fee ranging from US$20 to $50. Cash-strapped students are also turning to prostitution to pay their tuition bills or earn extra money to cover their weekly expenses, according to Asia Times Online interviews.
"On a good week, I can earn 10,000 pesos [US$230], enough to cover the fees needed to get the clearance for the final exams," said 19-year-old Jenny, a pseudonym, who is studying to be a teacher but works part time as what locals refer to as a "sexcort". "The sooner I graduate the better since I don't plan on doing this after college."
The cash allure is stronger for those who have fallen off the educational track. Canadian missionary Brett Ostrander related a story about a 14-year-old girl he met in his community work with International Teams Canada. Two years later, he noted, she became involved in the sex trade working as an escort to tourists while sightseeing and also providing sexual services.
Internet-based sexual services are also extending the trade into once remote rural areas, warned the CBCP. MJ, a pseudonym, got hooked on cyber-sex because of the easy money, considerably more than the 2,000-4,000 pesos she could earn as a domestic servant. She said she enticed some of her other friends working as maids to perform sex acts and strip online part time. Others she knows are advertising massage services online and are offering "extra service" for additional fees.
To be sure, there are several sex service-related love stories. Mina, not her real name, married a Korean man who she met in a strip club and now runs a small business while her two children are enrolled in an expensive private school. Another from the same club met an American who provided her the funds needed to finish a nursing course. She is now living comfortably in the US, she wrote anonymously in an e-mail.
Most of the time, however, women who enter the Philippines' sex trade are exploited badly and highly vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV-AIDS. As the Philippine sex trade expands to cater to a growing number of foreigners, the number of reported AIDS cases more than doubled this year, one of the few countries in the world to see its number of cases rise.
Activists against the trade, meanwhile, are fighting a losing battle. "The most difficult part is bringing people out of it or deterring others from joining it," said Ostrander. He said one of the most challenging issues of combating sex tourism is providing those in the industry with real options for other work. "Can we offer them jobs?," he asked rhetorically. "Unfortunately, the answer is no."
He concedes that sex tourism provides a way out of poverty. In the case of the 16-year-old girl mentioned above, Ostrander noted that for the first time she had her own money, was able to travel and rent her own apartment on wages she made as an escort. "If the ethical or moral aspect is our only avenue to get young girls out, I doubt there will be any success."
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