Human trafficking in typhoon-hit Mindanao

Six months have passed since Typhoon “Pablo” devastated certain parts of Mindanao. But until now the towns that the typhoon laid waste and the victims of its fury are far off the “stage of recovery.” It may be recalled that there was a time the victims had to ransack an office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development to get the sacks of rice allotted for them because the DSWD was (as it still is) extremely slow in distributing the relief goods, leaving the victims hungry, angry and desperate.

Now, recovery doesn’t seem to be the only problem the victims of Pablo are facing. Human trafficking syndicates, obviously smelling the victims’ desperation (with hardly any assistance from government), are now trying to exploit it.

It is known that President Aquino and his staff have visited the devastated areas only once—to hand out a few relief goods to the victims and to take a couple of photos with them. Since then, they have yet to go back, at the very least, if only to make sure that the ones who are assigned to bring relief to the victims are doing their jobs properly. Now it’s almost as if the government has left the victims no choice but to yield to human trafficking syndicates.

You know things are indeed seriously bad when syndicates, more than government, are the ones providing victims with what they direly need to recover from disasters.

—VINCENT VAUGHN,

starry_night174@yahoo.com