This refers to Belinda Olivares-Cunanan’s Feb. 5 column titled “Queries on Legacy”; specifically that portion on organ donation, which quoted Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez as saying that “under Republic Act 9208, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, what’s punishable is not the sale or removal per se of a person’s organs, but the recruitment, hiring, adoption or abduction of persons in order to remove or sell their organs.”

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) would like to reiterate that the sale of a human organ from one living person to another constitutes trafficking. Under RA 9208, “trafficking in persons” is defined as “the 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, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person, 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 x x x.”

When members of the vulnerable and poor sector sell or allow their organs to be removed for consideration, exploitation and trafficking occur — e.g., when able-bodied males from farming communities in Quezon province are recruited and brought to Manila to sell their kidneys to both foreign and Filipino recipients. This becomes a critical issue for the DSWD, the agency mandated to protect the vulnerable, marginalized and poor sectors of society.

Please note that RA 9208 tasked the DSWD as the co-chairperson f the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) with the following functions, to wit:

“x x x

(c) Monitor and oversee the strict implementation of this Act;

(f) Direct other agencies to immediately respond to the problems brought to their attention and report to the Council on action taken;

(p) Exercise all the powers and perform such other functions necessary to attain the purposes and objectives of this Act.”

Pursuant to this mandate and authority, the DSWD has continuously exerted diligent efforts to protect the vulnerable and poor from falling prey to trafficking. This issue transcends departmental authority; any DSWD action on this matter cannot be considered an infringement on the authority of co-equal departments like the Department of Health.

We would like to assure Cunanan that the DSWD, Department of Justice and Department of Health, upon instructions of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, cooperated in drafting the rules and regulations covering organ donation of living persons. The document has been forwarded to the IACAT for final approval and implementation.

ESPERANZA I. CABRAL, secretary,
Department of Social Welfare and Development