Protecting our children

The arrest of alleged child sex trafficker Teddy Jay Mojeca Mejia in Dubai is a positive development for a country considered a hotspot for online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC).

Mejia, who was repatriated from Dubai last week, is accused of abusing and exploiting 111 female minors by making them pose naked or recording them while being raped. He would then sell these materials online. Mejia’s victims were aged between 9 and 15 years old.

However, there are still many abusers and offenders who are out there and continue to commit crimes against vulnerable children. It is tragic that many of them are even known to or are family members of the victims.

President Marcos himself said it was shameful that the Philippines had a disgraceful record for child sex abuse. This ignominy, he said, should not be allowed to continue especially in a country that is known for putting premium on family values. “It is an appalling statistic … I cannot help but think how many are still left out there?”

Lack of dependable data

The International Justice Mission (IJM) and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab said, based on 2022 data, that nearly one in every 100 children in the Philippines “were trafficked to produce child sexual exploitation material for profit.”

There were 22,421 children who experienced abuse, neglect and other types of violence in the Philippines for the first half of this year, per the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The government rescued 169 victims, and arrested 51 suspects from January to September.

Last year, there were 2,740,905 reports of suspected child sexual exploitation online in the Philippines, based on data from the United States National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Given the overwhelming number of cases, and despite the passage of Republic Act. No. 11930 that penalizes online abuse and exploitation of children, it is unlikely that they have all been acted upon. This means that offenders continue to exploit vulnerable children.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Mama Fatima Singhateh said during a visit to the country in 2022 that there is a lack of a dependable data collection. “It is essential to systematically collect reliable, centralized, and disaggregated data by age, gender, ethnicity, disability, including the number of prosecution and convictions related to child sexual abuse cases.”

Makabata helpline 163

Aside from data collection, it is also essential to train those who are tasked to receive, investigate, and adjudicate perpetrators of OSAEC. Singhateh noted that trained individuals should be available at the barangay level, which is the first resort for majority of the victims.

Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. has already called on local governments to pass ordinances addressing the rise of child abuse cases. There is also the Makabata helpline 1383 which the public can use in reporting cases—but how many are aware that there is such a hotline? The government doesn’t need to replicate the success of Bantay Bata 163, a social welfare program of the ABS-CBN Foundation that aims to protect disadvantaged and at-risk children, but it should use this program as a benchmark for launching and providing an effective public service.

The government should also consider Singhateh’s suggestion to establish a child-specific court separate from family courts to immediately address these cases and minimize trauma for the victims.

Root of the problem

It may also want to revisit the earlier suggestions made by the IJM to accelerate response to OSAEC including strictly enforcing RA 11934 or the SIM Registration Act to “detect, block, and report child sexual exploitation materials, including livestreamed abuse.” When the law was first passed, the government had so much enthusiasm over what it can do in going after nefarious individuals but online crimes—from sexual exploitation to financial scams—continue to proliferate. The government must do the necessary action, whether it’s a problem of implementation or the need to put more teeth into the law.

Another suggestion was for the Anti-Money Laundering Council and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to issue clear guidelines and regulations that will force Philippine banks and money transfer businesses to detect, intercept, and report transactions that could be related to OSAEC.

At the root of the problem is of course poverty, which makes poor families vulnerable to the exploitation of people like Mejia. Not only should he be made accountable for his crimes but the government could also use him to track this evil network that preys on children.

The government, private sector, and the community must all do their part because if it takes an entire village to raise a child, it also takes an entire village to protect a child.