Why does this happen?

Some of the American readers may be asking why children in the Philippines (or other SE Asian countries) become sex trafficked. Well, this article published by Expertlaw.com, written by Judge Nimfa Cuesta Vilches in 2004 sheds some light on some very serious human rights issues that make Filipino (and many other children around the world) vulnerable to sex trafficking:

"A girl child in the Philippines is discriminated upon early in life due to culture-based and family reinforced gender biases. For instance, despite her special nutritional needs in preparation as future mother and nurturer, the girl child is allotted less food than her father and her brothers. When money for education is scarce, her brothers are given the preference.

The Filipino girl child takes the stereotyped role of her mother who is portrayed as an abused and submissive woman relegated to domestic work. Moreover, the public considers girls and women as sex objects and typifies them as club/bar entertainers, beauty pageant contestants, and racy or pornographic film stars.
The pejorative expectations that Filipino society has on women and children are compounded by problems of extreme poverty; massive labor export; globalization; porous borders; aggressive tourism campaigns; negative portrayal of women by mass media; pornography on-line and internet chat-rooms; the practice of mail-order brides; inter-country adoption; and joint military exercises in the country with visiting forces from abroad. These factors cause women to become easy victims of sex-trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation either in the Philippines or in countries of destination.

To date, more than 4 million Filipinos are unemployed and 40% of them are women. There were around 600,000 prostitutes in the Philippines in the year 2000 and 50,000 of them were children. In September 2002, a staggering number of 1.6 million Filipinos left the country to work abroad and 48% of them are female. In the first quarter of the year 2003, there were 2,872 sexually abused and exploited children. Further, the number of girl children in the year 2000 which was estimated at 16.7 million will significantly increase to 17.4 million in 2005."

The link for this article: http://www.expertlaw.com/library/domestic_violence/Philippines_trafficking.html