PHL: Singaporean trafficker's conviction a warning to illegal recruiters

Philippine officials and labor experts on Monday said the recent conviction of a Singaporean who trafficked two Filipino women in 2008 should deter recruiters from exploiting Filipino workers.

 

The Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday sentenced to three years in jail Singaporean Eugene Beng Hua Lim a.k.a. Alfred Lim for trafficking Filipino domestic helpers Marivic Relon Capistrano, 35, and Marilou de la Cruz Bagsit, 37.

 

 

Meanwhile, Blas F. Ople Policy Center head Susan Ople said this is the first time a Singaporean trafficker was convicted in a Malaysian court, which she said should serve as "fair warning" to foreigners who want to exploit Filipinos, especially women.

 

"Hindi na totally helpless yung victims ng human trafficking kasi yung iba't-ibang bansa may anti-human trafficking laws to run after the foriegn traffickers," she told GMA News Online in a phone interview on Monday.

 

The Ople Policy Center took care of Bagsit and Capistrano when they returned to the country four years ago.

 

The group said the two were recruited separately to work as domestic workers in Malaysia in 2008. When they arrived in Kuala Lumpur, they were distributed to their employers and suffered physical and verbal abuse whenever they were returned to Lim.

 

When they found out that they were going to be sent to work as prostitutes, they decided to escape and seek the help of the Philippine Embassy in Malaysia.

 

Ople said the conviction of Lim is important because it shows that the passage of anti-trafficking laws are "not without value."   She added that this underscores the importance of collaboration between the trafficked women, the Departments of Justice, Foreign Affairs, and Labor and Employment, the Philippine Embassy, the Bureau of Immigration, and groups like the Ople Policy Center.

 

"It is important because it gives hope to victims like Marilou and Marivic, and so many other silent victims of "Alfred Lim" that justice can be possible, despite distance, inspite of the influence and wealth of their foreign recruiters and/or employers," she said.

 

Trafficking cases

 

Data provided by the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to GMA News Online indicate that a total of 1,608 human trafficking cases have been filed before Philippine courts since 2003, when the government enacted the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act. 

 

Of these cases, 625 were filed during the term of President Benigno Aquino III:

 

The IACAT likewise said there have been 66 convictions involving 76 traffickers since 2005, of which 40 convictions involving 50 traffickers were metted during Aquino's term:

 

"Nag-intensify kami ng [campaign against] trafficking in persons.  There were more operations, more investigations, more training," IACAT secretariat head Ruby Ramores told GMA News Online in a phone interview on Monday.

 

However, Ople said the important thing is still the "perseverance and determination" of the trafficking victims to come out and seek justice.

 

"There is a conscious effort now to use all possible channels and all legal [means] to run after human traffickers and illegal traffickers here and abroad [but] ang kailangan lang lumakas na yung loob ng victims to cooperate...kung wala yun di wala ring mangayayari," she said. She added that the other victims of Lim — estimated to be close to a hundred — should also come forward like what Bagsit and Capistrano did.

 

Anti-trafficking laws

 

The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act defined trafficking in persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring, or receipt of persons" by any means for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude, and debt bondage exploitation.

 

According to the law, the three categories of trafficking acts carry the following penalties:

 

 

The law said trafficking cases may be filed in places where the offense or any of its elements was committed. The unlawful activity’s elements include “acts, means, purpose, and venue."

 

From 2007 to 2010, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) has documented 268 cases of trafficking cases with a total of 452 victims, 79.51 percent of whom were women. Many of these victims were trafficked to Singapore and Malaysia, and were recruited as hotel receptionists, waitresses, or domestic helpers.

 

Last year, the Philippine government launched the 1343 Actionline, a 24-hour hotline that will respond to emergency calls from victims of human trafficking in Metro Manila and other provinces.

 

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the 1343 hotline may be accessed from any point in Metro Manila, and can be accessed from the provinces by dialing Manila's area code (02), and the hotline number.   It is supposed to be toll free all over the nation and even globally in the near future.

 

Trafficking in PHL

 

In mid-2011, the United States government removed the Philippines from its Tier 2 Watch List for having several convictions of human traffickers last year.

 

According to the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report of the US State Department, although the Philippines "still does not fully comply with minimum standards to eliminate trafficking, Manila is making significant efforts to do so."

 

In last year's US trafficking report, the Philippines was one of the 58 countries under the “Tier 2 Watch List," which included Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Mozambique, Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Kazahkstan, Niger, Tunisia, Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, China, and Russia, among others.

 

Those under the "Tier 2 Watch List" are countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards but are making significant efforts to comply with those standards.

 

On the other hand, those under the Tier 2 category are "countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards." — VVP, GMA News