Without the fact being publicized, the Philippines in reality ranks among the countries with the highest incidences of slavery.
A short walk down red light districts all over the country will reveal too many young and not so young women forcibly taken into unpleasant sex jobs and unable to escape their circumstances. Some time ago, and perhaps even up to the present, provinces in Southern Luzon became popular for young boys and girls sold to both locals and foreigners in child prostitution - pedophile patrons paid large sums of money to engage in sexual acts painful to these children.
In many homes, farms, factories - not always within the country, very young people of both sexes are forced to work as domestic helpers, menial workers, odd jobbers - some are subjected to rape, brutality and other unconscionable forms of violence by their masters. Many of these young people are barely compensated since they are at the mercy of their very masters and if they have no will to fight, cannot escape their virtual imprisonment. Who is to say that not a single one of these severely oppressed domestic workers have not been kidnapped from their own homes and instead willingly went to work for jobs where they could hardly eat, sleep and earn decent pay?
Many point at India and African states and nearby countries as having the worst numbers of people trapped in slavery. The subtle nuances of slavery in the Philippines does not make the country less answerable to the charge that the government cannot do so much to solve the problem of blatant enslavement of humans and robbing them of their natural rights to exist in relative freedom and enjoy life like their fellow human beings.
In countries where government are more concerned with the fanfare of political vengeance or vendetta, killing prospects of political rivals for future elections, as well as engaging in extreme forms of money making to the exclusion of safeguarding the welfare of the citizens, slavery will thrive and truly prosper.
A true inventory of how many people are victims of slavery in the Philippines will reveal the hurting truth that this country is suffering too many of its children, women and even a huge chunk of the working sector in abject slavery. For this reason, it is categorically claimed that the Philippines is one country where the incidence of slavery in child prostitution, white slavery, forced enslavement in mean and low-paying menial jobs, among many other forms of slavery, is one of the highest in the whole world.
This has to change.
QualityChange.org fervently desires the coming together of more individuals, families, organizations and religious groups, sectoral aggrupations to end slavery in the country and help bring down the statistics of Filipinos being victimized by international slavery rings.
