PHILIPPINES
Preda
by Fr. Shay Cullen
Email: shaycullen@preda.org
(Fr. Shay’s columns are published in The Manila Times,in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and on-line.)
It’s great to have the good news of the rescue of children from sexual exploitation. The rescue this week of six trafficked and commercially exploited children by police of the Criminal Investigative Detection Group(CIDG) from a sex bar in Isabela, Quirino, a remote town in the Philippines, just shows that police can make a difference.
It also shows just how widespread the sexual exploitation of children is. Not only in the red-light districts of many cities but in small towns and beach resorts, it is a money-making business. The trafficking of children and women is a multi-billion dollar business world-wide. Over two million are trafficked each year and most never get back home, they are lost forever.
Good that CIDG Director Samuel D. Pagdilao Jr. and his team are serious minded about saving children from this horrific, life destroying experience. The rape and murder of a 7 year old child in Laguna this week is like that of 7 year-old Mykie Prado, raped and murdered in Aklan over two years ago and whose suspected murderer is still at large ought to cause public outrage. But it does not.
These heinous crimes are becoming more frequent due to the depravity of the abusers influenced by child pornography, the laxity of enforcement, the influx of big paying sex tourists and the bad influence it has on local communities. If the foreigners can do it without being arrested local men may say, then it’s OK for us. Government must review the permissiveness of local authorities that give permits and licences to dens of prostitution and the havens of child traffickers. It’s a blight and a shame on the dignity and respect of our nation.
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