President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. directed the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking on Monday to intensify and coordinate their efforts to combat human trafficking.
During a briefing on the issues called by Malacañang, Marcos said the IACAT and the PAOCC must lead in coordinating government measures and public-private collaborations to combat human trafficking “in its multifarious operations on the ground and now becoming more and more important online.”
Marcos also asked the Presidential Communications Office to help the IACAT develop a communication campaign to inform the public about the risk posed by syndicates involved in human trafficking.
“Heightened public awareness is key. That’s what we spoke about a little bit earlier,” Marcos said.
“The (PCO) must assist IACAT in its communication campaign against trafficking in persons in order to amplify the effort,” he added.
He gave those government agencies the order to end the activities of human traffickers who take advantage of the physical and financial frailties of the victims, especially women and children.
The President highlighted that human trafficking had been a persistent issue for many nations, particularly while the world economy is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, which made life more difficult for a lot of people.
Without employment or a means of support, Marcos said people are more susceptible to human traffickers. Now is the time for government protection and involvement, he added.
“I think the room for improvement here is that we can work together more and coordinate together more and where – that puts meat on the bones of what we have come to call the whole-of-government approach and bring everything to bear to the problems that we are facing,” Marcos said.
“I remember Secretary Toots (Ople) and I started on this campaign to remove us from Tier 2. We are in danger coming down to Tier 3 at the time. So we managed to take us back up to Tier 1. And let’s just make sure that the Tier 1 categorization or status of the Philippines is not put in any danger,” he noted.
Despite the current civil upheaval in Myanmar, Marcos said it was lucky that the country was able to repatriate victims of human trafficking there.
Marcos also raised the need for the Philippines to maintain its status in the tier system.
“We must make sure that we do not fall out of Tier 1 into another tier,” Marcos said.
The Trafficking in Persons Office within the US Department of State assesses and monitors all countries’ efforts to combat human trafficking yearly and provides each country with a grade according to a three-tier scale.
Countries and territories under Tier 1 fully comply with the minimum standards. In contrast, those under Tier 2 do not fully comply with the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to comply with those standards.