US REPORT SAYS

Too few prosecutors, slow moving courts hinder 'timely' prosecution of human trafficking crimes in Philippines

The Philippines has yet to to improve on timely prosecution of individuals involved in human trafficking despite retaining its Tier 1 status in the US State Department's 2020 Trafficking in Person (TIP) Report.

The report, which covered government interventions of various countries against human trafficking for the period of April 2019 t0 March 2020, acknowledged that the Philippines made efforts to decrease the time for case resolution and implemented a case management system to monitor case progress and outcomes.

However, it stressed that "despite these advances, government agencies continued to report the need for more anti-trafficking law enforcement personnel, funds for operations, and equipment for forensic analysis of digital evidence and the extremely high volume of cybercrime tips related to child sexual exploitation the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Cybercrime received each month."

"Slow moving courts, the need for additional training on handling digital evidence in hearings and trials, and too few prosecutors also hindered the effective and timely prosecution of trafficking crimes," it added.

The report said that the DOJ, which oversees and supports the operations and training of 24 interagency anti-trafficking task forces in the country, did not approve the Interagency Council Against Trafficking Secretariat's recommendation to hike by 50% the number of its prosecutors handling trafficking crimes during the reporting period.

Designated anti-trafficking prosecutors under these were tasked to ensure the reporting, referring, and filing of cases.

Prosecution, conviction

Nevertheless, the US government report recognized the "sufficiently stringent" existing anti-trafficking laws in the Philippines which criminalized sex and labor trafficking.

The prosecution of 266 alleged traffickers were initiated by the Philippine government for the 11-month period covered by the report—slightly higher than 227 in 2018.

The said cases involved 24 labor trafficking defendants; 239 sex trafficking defendants; and three defendants charged with using a child for soldiering.

According to the report, 89 traffickers were convicted under the anti-trafficking act and related laws in the Philippines, also higher compared to the 77 that received conviction in 2018.

"Most of the convicted traffickers subjected minors to sex trafficking, including 32 who sexually exploited children online... five committed labor trafficking," it said.

"The courts sentenced nearly all of the sex traffickers convicted under the anti-trafficking act to 15 years’ imprisonment or more and fines ranging from 500,000 to five million pesos," it added.

The Philippines retained its Tier 1 status—meaning it fully met the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking—for the fifth straight year yet the TIP report still outlined several recommendations to improve the country's efforts against human trafficking. --KBK, GMA News