Only 12 Convicted of Human Trafficking in Central Visayas in 7 Years

Only 12 persons were convicted of human trafficking in Central Visayas in a span of seven years, according to the Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force.

The task force said 118 were arrested from 2008 to the early part of 2015, of which 112 are Filipinos, three are Americans, two are Australians and a Danish national.

The same report showed that 659 victims were rescued, 78 of which are minors.

Dr. Alwin De Leon, Philippine country manager at Terre des Hommes Netherlands, said there is a need to strengthen the fight against human trafficking and child exploitation, especially in developing countries like the Philippines.

De Leon said they are giving particular focus on areas frequented by tourists.

De Leon said they are focusing on Cebu because it is a popular tourist destination.

Last year, six towns in Cebu province made it to the top 10 major tourist destinations in Central Visayas as identified by the Department of Tourism (DOT)7.

These include San Remegio (second) with 15, 201 foreign visits, Sta. Fe (third) with 13,055 foreign visits, Minglanilla (fourth) with 5,626 foreign visits, Moalboal (sixth) with 15,154 foreign visits and Cordova (eight) with 4,688 foreign visits.

Completing the list are Panglao Island, Bohol (first) and Dauis town (fifth); San Juan, Siquijor (seventh); and Mabinay, Negros Oriental (ninth).

The ranking was based on the total number of visits with the figures of foreign visits added with the domestic visits.

De Leon said they are now monitoring up to 700,000 websites with the help of “Sweetie,” a virtual 10-year-old Filipina girl designed to trace online child sex offenders who abuse children with the use of the web camera.

So far, they have identified 1,000 pedophiles.

On April 2015, the Dutch children’s rights organization launched Sweetie 2.0, which was also created to nab web predators.

“This is created in a way to protect more children. This is a prevention-type of action to give a hint to the perpetrators that when they think of dealing with minors, it would give them a second thought,” De Leon said. (PNA) FFC/EB/EBP