President Ferdinand R. Macros Jr. has ordered the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking and other concerned government agencies to intensify their efforts against human trafficking so that the Philippines could maintain its Tier 1 status in the Trafficking in Person Report.
This was bared by Department of Justice Assistant Secretary Mico Clavano on a news forum on Saturday in Quezon City.
Currently, the Philippines has a Tier 1 ranking, the highest classification given US State Department, which means the country fully complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking and is actively working to address the issue.
Clavano said Marcos is set to present the human trafficking issues in the Philippines before his counterparts in the upcoming 43rd Association of the Southeast Asian Nations Summit scheduled in the first week of September in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“Yes. We have given the President a situationer previously on the area of human trafficking and he understands very clearly the depth and how widespread this problem is,” said Clavano.
“In fact, he has given specific instructions to maintain our Tier 1 ranking. That means he will support all the facets and all the programs that the IACAT has already put in place and he would like to enhance those programs,” he added.
Clavano said the IACAT’s recent decision to revise the departure guidelines is part of the government’s heeding to Marcos’ order so that the Philippines could maintain its Tier 1 ranking.
“Although we have already been given the Tier 1 ranking for 2022, we felt we could further enhance our own operations against human trafficking so we have to understand that our population is a very migratory population,” he said.
“Around 10 percent of our population seeks to travel abroad and find their opportunities abroad and this is very specific to our country as opposed or as compared to other countries who have job opportunities where they are,” he added.
Clavano said among the identified hotspots for illegal trafficking for Filipinos include Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
“So, the international nature of the cross-boundary or transboundary nature of the crime is something that we are really looking into and we engage with our counterparts from the different countries, the Foreign Affairs of the different countries, so we can gather the best practices and we can also keep up with the trends that are currently being seen in the trafficking industry or area,” he said.