In Freedom Ride, bikers call for end to human trafficking

 

In Metro Manila, at least a thousand cyclists participated in the Freedom Ride in Eastwood, Quezon City organized by nongovernment group Dakila to fight human trafficking and promote the 1343 anti-trafficking hotline.

 

At around 7:30 a.m., the bikers took off to conduct the awareness campaign, in a route that started from Eastwood passing through UP Diliman then the Ortigas Central Business District then back to Eastwood again, wearing shirts that promote the 1343 hotline.
 

The Freedom Ride conducted in Eastwood was the culminating event of Dakila's Stop Look Listen campaign against human trafficking. Freedom Rides were already organized since March in several areas in the country.

 

In 2011, the government through the  Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking launched the 1343 hotline to combat human trafficking.

 

IACAT is chaired by the Department of Justice (DOJ), with the Department of Social Welfare and Development as co-chair.

Its members are the DFA, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Bureau of Immigration, PNP and the Philippine Commission on Women.

 

Just this February, it was reported that out of the 200 cases brought to the 1343 hotline since its launch in 2011, 160 victims have been repatriated by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

 

That time, the 24-hour hotline had logged around 15,000 calls.

Not everyone is 'free'

 

Dakila vice president and prominent musician Noel Cabangon said even as the country celebrates Independence Day yearly, not all of us are free.

 

"Taon-taon nating ginugunita ang Independence Day upang ipagbunyi ang ating kalayaan mula sa pananakop ng mga Espanyol," Cabangon said.

 

However, he said thousands of Filipinos fall victim to human trafficking yearly, and should be helped.

 

"Sa araw na ito, ipinagbubunyi natin ang ating kalayaan habang patuloy na ipinaglalaban ang kalayaan ng iba," he said.

• acts of trafficking in persons;
• acts that promote trafficking, and 
• qualified trafficking.

Cycling and 'independence'

 

Meanwhile, Cabangon urged people to be Freedom Warriors, and to express independence through cycling.

 

"Sa bawat padyak natin ngayong umaga, isipin natin ang mga biktima ng human trafficking at maaari pang mabiktima nito," he said.

 

"Nawa ang bawat padyak natin ay pagpadyak para mailihis ang daan ng bawat Pilipino mula sa kapamahakan tungo sa kaligtasan," Cabangon continued.

 

According to Dakila spokesperson Ayeen Karunungan, cycling was the activity that could best express the message of fighting modern-day slavery.

 

"Ayaw (ng mga cyclists) ng traffic, tapos sila, to avoid traffic, they look at the signs, para na rin they go to their destinations safely," Karunungan said in an interview.

 

"Gusto natin yung Filipino public, when they go through the roads of their lives, kung gusto nilang, for example, mangibang-bansa to find greener pastures, they just don't go and not look at the signs of human trafficking," she said.

 

According to Darlene Pajarito, an assistant city prosecutor in Zamboanga City, prosecution against human traffickers has greatly improved.

 

Pajarito is the woman behind the Philippines' first sex trafficking conviction in 2005 and its first labor trafficking conviction in 2011.

 

Based on IACAT data, there have been 103 convictions so far since the first in 2005. 

 

Under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III so far, there have been 74 convictions.

 

"Independence Day, we are celebrating the essence of freedom, right? Human trafficking is one form of modern-day slavery, and everybody should be free from such forms," Pajarito said.

 

"Nobody should be placed under any form of human trafficking," she also said.

 

A concert awaited the cyclists who returned from the Freedom Ride as well as the general public, featuring performances from Cabangon and other bands such as Up Dharma Down. - VVP, GMA News