THE Philippines under the Marcos administration has kept its Tier 1 Ranking in the United States Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report for 2023 which was released last June 15 as officials attributed it to the current national leadership’s ‘whole-of-government, whole-of-nation approach to fight modern-day sex and human slavery, the Journal Group learned yesterday.

It was the 8th year in a row that the United States has recognized the Philippine government’s anti-TIP campaign.

A Tier 1 ranking means that the country fully meets the minimum standards set by the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act (US TVPA) although it likewise provides yearly recommendations to augment the government’s anti-TIP efforts.

For this year, the U.S. TIP Report highlighted nine prioritized recommendations that include the following: investigate and prosecute traffickers and complicit officials as well as punish them with significant prison terms;

* augment efforts to assist labor trafficking victims by providing additional trainings for law enforcers, service providers and labor inspectors on the red flags of this type of trafficking;

* further capacitate local government units in the reintegration of victim-survivors through trauma-informed care, job training, and in-country employment;

* provide more support for government and NGO-based programs for specialized treatments for victim-survivors especially for child victims;

* engage the survivors in drafting policies, programs and trainings by incorporating their inputs; assist the victims to receive their court-ordered compensation through civil judgment;

* increase the funding for the different anti-trafficking task forces of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to ensure that they are able to fully perform their mandates;

* ensure that there is a consistent inter-agency response to provide services to distressed overseas Filipinos rescued from sex and labor trafficking and last but not the least; and

* create a centralized database of human trafficking organized crime groups and cases to ensure proper inter-agency coordination.

In the past three years, the previous TIP Reports have called the attention of the Philippine government to address a number of deficiencies in its efforts to fight modern-day slavery.

For example, its 2022 version noted that the Philippines failed to vigorously run after traffickers who paid for commercial sex from trafficking victims nor was the government able to provide sufficient training for labor inspectors to identify the red flags of labor trafficking, just to name a few.

The U.S. 2021 TIP Report on the other hand underscored the government’s failure to convict public officials who facilitated trafficking crimes as well as the inadequate resources provided for law enforcement agencies.
President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ R. Marcos Jr. called for a new set of leaders to take over the helm of the IACAT and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission to fight trafficking in persons shortly after he took over as the new Chief Executive on June 30, 2022.

Last March 13, President Marcos tasked the IACAT and the PACC to take the lead in putting an end to the current modus operandi of labor trafficking that victimizes Filipinos in the Golden Triangle composed of Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar as well as the cryptocurrency scammers who victimizes Filipinos and foreign nationals in the country.

PAOCC chairman, Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin instructed the PAOCC Executive Director, retired Police General Gilbert DC Cruz to coordinate with the member agencies of the IACAT to provide assistance to distressed Filipinos in Myanmar.

This prompted the PAOCC Executive Director to hold a series of talks with Colonel Dominador Matalang, the country’s police attache in Thailand in order to send a message to the Filipino community in Myawaddy, Myanmar that the Philippine government is fully ready to assist them.

The Philippine Embassies in Thailand and Myanmar are in-charge of the government’s assistance package to distressed Pinoys in the two countries.

Since the PAOCC-supported program started last May 16, a total of 43 distressed Overseas Filipino Workers in Thailand and Myanmar have been assisted by the OPA Thailand and the PAOCC.

Their number compliments those that have already been assisted by the IACAT, the Department of Migrant Workers and the Department of Foreign Affairs- Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers.

Moreover, PAOCC officers have assisted four Filipinas who have been victimized by sex trafficking syndicates in Labuan in Malaysia.

The anti-crime commission is continuously reaching out to its counterparts in Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia to seek their aid in finding distressed Filipinos in their territories.

Likewise, the PAOCC supported the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group during its conduct of an anti-trafficking in persons operation inside Clark Development Corporation in Mabalacat City in Pampanga where nearly 1,400 foreign nationals and Filipinos were rescued.

The victims were found to have been employed by a well-organized foreign crime group operating a cryptocurrency scam hub inside Clark, the PAOCC said.

Undersecretary Cruz has been in constant coordination with Department of Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty to ensure the repatriation of all of the foreign victims and the prosecution of the foreign suspects and their local facilitators.

“A whole-of-government approach rooted on the best practices of other nations who have been successful in this fight is needed to ensure that the Philippines remains in the Tier 1 ranking for the duration of the current Marcos administration. More than the desired ranking, a proactive government set of programs against trafficking in persons is needed to protect our countrymen from this modern-day slavery,” said Undersecretary Cruz.