PANABO CITY, Davao del Norte, May 09 (PIA) – Community folks should be made aware of the menace of trafficking in persons (TIP) for them to get involved in foiling it, Social Welfare Regional Director Esther A. Versoza said.
Versoza recently made the call as the Regional Interagency Council against Trafficking Integrated Action Network (RIACTION) XI pushed the alliance to the barangay level to widen links of agencies tasked to curb human trafficking.
In a seminar in Panabo City, Versoza said that most recruitment were done at the community level where traffickers were noted to have been offering high salaries and juicy offers which victims unwittingly took prompted by hopes to help their families.
“Let us be vigilant and let us cooperate,” Versoza told participants who mostly were barangay officials.
DSWD serves as the vice chairperson of RIACTION chaired by Department of Justice (DOJ) which takes lead in implementing the Republic Act No. 9208 otherwise known as the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.
Versoza together with Regional Prosecutor Antonio B. Arellano forged a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Panabo City Mayor Jose Silvosa officially linking the city government of Panabo into the regional alliance against trafficking in persons.
In a press forum “Tikad sa Kalambuon”, Silvosa admitted that Panabo “is vulnerable” to incidence of trafficking in persons, due to the presence of a wharf serving cargo vessels that are loading export bananas bound for Europe, Japan and the Middle East.
Panabo City and Davao Oriental are among the local government units that DOJ cites as members of RIACTION but Prosecutor Arellano intends to widen the alliance against trafficking, taking into the network of all LGUs.
In the same press forum, Arellano lauded the city government of Panabo for having taken a pro-active measure against human trafficking by passing the City Ordinance No. 48-08 or the “Anti-trafficking in Persons in the City of Panabo .”
The ordinance was passed way ahead of the creation of RIACTION which was formally formed in Region XI in May 2011.
Arellano hopes that with the integrated alliance of concerned national line agencies and LGUs, the courts would achieve more conviction of cases on human trafficking.
Meanwhile, in her presentation, Assistant Regional Prosecutor Barbara Mae P. Flores said that R.A. 9208 refers trafficking in persons “to recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring or receipt of persons with or without the victim’s consent or knowledge within or across national borders by means of threat or use of force, or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position.
Such crime is said to be committed by “taking advantage of the vulnerability of the persons or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation which includes at a minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal or sale of organs.” (PIA-XI/Jeanevive Duron-Abangan)
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