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P100 million to combat human trafficking

De Lima with Human trafficking victim

Amidst stories of Filipinos being lured by syndicates to a life of misery and degradation, here’s a silver lining:

Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad has granted the request of the Department of Justice for P100 million for the 2013 operations of the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking.

There were fears earlier that the DBM would only give IACAT P40 million which is even P10 million less.

Justice Undersecretary Jovy Salazar, who is in-charge of IACAT, said “The IACAT 2013 budget approval is a recognition and acknowledgment of the importance of what we do for the most vulnerable members of our society. We are truly grateful and up to the challenge.”

He said although the 2013 budget (which is over P2 trillion) will still be deliberated in the House of Representatives he is “confident that the impact of IACAT’s mandate will justify the need for the requested budget for 2013.”

IACAT’s mandate is to implement on the ground what is declared in the Constitution that the “State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights.”

The government’s policy of manpower export started by Ferdinand Marcos and carried on by his successors of exporting Filipino workers overseas is actually anathema to the Constitutional provision. But be that as it may, it has its upsides and one of it is it helps greatly Philippine economy.

The downside is the vulnerability of poor Filipinos to unscrupulous human traffickers.

IACAT is an inter-agency body and it is supposed to help prevent trafficking to happen. That means close coordination with the Department of Labor, the police, and other departments as well as DOJ agencies such as the Bureau of Immigration.

It is also supposed to ensure recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration of the victims into the mainstream of society by providing emergency shelter or appropriate housing; counseling; free legal services which shall include information about the victims’ rights and the procedure for filing complaints, claiming compensation and such other legal remedies available to them, in a language understood by the trafficked person; medical or psychological services.

IACAT also helps victims in acquiring livelihood skills and education to trafficked children.

With so many cases of Filipinos victimized by traffickers not only overseas but also in the domestic front, it was not surprising that the Philippines was in Tier2 Watch List of the United States Department of State’s monitoring of Trafficking of Persons.

Countries in Tier2 Watch List are those with the most number of human trafficking victims and with less government effort to stop all forms of human trafficking.

In 2011, the Philippines was removed from the Watch List and has maintained it this year. The State Department Global Trafficking in Persons Report took note that although the government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, “it is making significant efforts to do so.”

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said, “Tier 2 is an important recognition of the country’s sustained and aggressive initiatives and programs to eliminate human trafficking. The Tier 2 status officially recognizes a country’s significant efforts to adhere to the benchmarks prescribed by the US State Department and meet the minimum standards.”

Top in the recommendations of the Global Trafficking in Persons Report for the Philippines are to sustain the intensified efforts to investigate, prosecute and convict an increased number of both labor and sex trafficking offenders both locally & overseas and increased the funding for anti-trafficking programs.

These things can be done only with a bigger budget.

Based on IACAT’s 2nd Strategic Action Plan which plots the goals of the council until 2016, the projected budget needed to ensure optimum performance is around P150 million. Conscious that there are sectors that also need funds badly, the DOJ only asked for P100 million.

And it was granted.

Published inHuman RightsJusticeLaborMalaya

10 Comments

  1. Maganda ang ipinupunto ng IACAT kung sadyang mangyayari ang kanilang tinatawag na Strategic Action Plan. Dahil inter-agency body ang uugit nito at preventive measure ang kanilang objective, ang puna ko lang, bakit hindi kasali ang DILG or the LGUs for that matter? Alamin nating karaniwang biktima ng human trafficking ay mga promdi, mga mahihirap. Tama lamang na ang kampanya ay simulan sa mga kabayanan at ang unang hakbang ay sa pamamagitan ng pakikipagtulungan ng lokal na pamahalaan.

  2. anong ginagawa ng katolikaong simbahan dito? sa lawak ng impluwensiya nila may nangyayari pa ring ganito, ano ba ang focus nila?

  3. MPRivera MPRivera

    ipupusta ko ang kalahati ng betlog ng kumpare ko – ilang opisyal na naman ng kinauukulang ahensiya ang lolobo ang bank account mula sa pondong ito.

    magbago na kayo!

  4. chi chi

    Excellent poste joeseg. Sa mga kanayunan/kabayanan magsimula at imonitor ng mga honest officials ang kampanya para hindi maibulsa ang pera gaya ng agam-agam ni Magno.

  5. DILG is included but I just cited a few. DSWD is also included.

  6. Rudolfo Rudolfo

    Dapat lang na ang pondo ay magamit sa tamang proseso o pagagamitan, at huwag abusuhin ng kung sino mang Pamunuan. Magising na sila, at maglingkod sa Bayan ng tutuhunan, di, para sa kanilang mga “bulsa” lamang..Isang pa-alala lamang sa IACAT, o mga kina-uukulan. May tiwala tayo ki DILG, Jess Robredo, isa syang tapat sa tungkulin..

  7. Rudolfo Rudolfo

    Dapat lang na ang pondo ay magamit sa tamang proseso o pagagamitan, at huwag abusuhin ng kung sino mang Pamunuan. Magising na sila, at maglingkod sa Bayan ng tutuhanan, at di, para sa kanilang mga “bulsa” lamang..Isang pa-alala sa IACAT, o mga kina-uukulan. May tiwala tayo ki DILG, Jess Robredo, isa syang tapat sa tungkulin..

  8. MPRivera MPRivera

    ka ompong,

    hindi sapat ang sinasabi mong katapatan sa tungkulin upang maging isang epektibong hepe ang katulad ni DILG secretary robredo. minsan din kasi ay lumalampas din siya sa limitasyon ng dapat niyang sabihin sa publiko at nakakalimot na ang dapat niyang unahing busalan ay ang mga nasa kanyang bakuran.

  9. From DBM:

    Good day!

    The Department of Budget and Management would like to express its sincere gratitude for your column “P100 million to combat human trafficking” published in Malaya last 2 July 2012.

    Our Department staunchly believes that the Philippines should be more aggresive in combatting human trafficking inasmuch as the Aquino administration is aggressive to eradicate these cases that transgress human rights. Through the budgetary support that we aim to maintain, we hope to move from the recognition that the Tier 2 status endows but also attain a Tier 1 status to institutionalize the government’s effort to fight human trafficking.

    At Tier 2 status, the United States Department Trafficking in Persons report recognizes that while there are a lot of issues to solve, the Philippines is exerting due effort to achieve the minimum standards befitting of a Tier 1 status.

    Our department aims to achieve Tier 1 in partnership with IACAT through steady improvements in funding. We eye that this will assist the country to actuate the recommendations from the TIP report such as increased investigaion, prosecution, and conviction of labour and sex offenders, improved tracking and monitring mechanisms on the cases filed with the Department of Justice, and provide shelter, among others.

    Again, thank you for writing about this in your column and we wish you all the best.

    Sincerely,

    Office of the Secretary – Public Information Unit

    Department of Budget and Management

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