The Philippines is leading in child sexual exploitation, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said on Thursday.
Remulla thus told reporters after he met Mama Fatima Singhateh, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children, who paid him a courtesy call.
Asked about the status of online sexual exploitation in the country, Remulla said, “We’re No. 1 in the world.”
“Dapat mawala na ito. Yun ang effort talaga ng gobyerno ni Pangulong Marcos na itigil na itong status ng Pilipinas na nangunguna tayo sa child sexual exploitation,” Remulla said.
(We’re number 1 in the world. This should be gone. The Marcos administration is making efforts to stop the Philippines’ status on being the leading country in child sexual exploitation.)
Remulla said he gave Singhateh “an official letter” to tell her what the Philippines was doing to combat child sexual exploitation.
“Actually, we’ve declared war on this. It’s the first thing we did since the inception of the Marcos regime,” Remulla said of the government’s campaign against child sexual exploitation.
United Nations Special Rapporteur Mama Fatima Singhateh on Thursday bared that the Philippines remained to be a source and place for child trafficking, sale, sexual abuse, and forced marriage and labor, among others.
In a news conference, Singhateh presented the preliminary findings of her 11-day visit to the Philippines.
She said there was a lack of explicit legal provision in the Constitution to penalize the exploitation of children for travel and tourism.
“The Philippines remains a source and destination country for child trafficking, sale, sexual abuse, and forced marriage… and forced labor,” Singhateh said.
“There’s a lack of all limited information on the scale of incidents of child trafficking victims and how victims are exploited,” she added.
Singhateh said there might be an under-reporting of child victims of sale and sexual exploitation in the country as the definition and distinction between these terms are “inadequate.”
She recommended a distinction in the law between the sale of children and child trafficking.
Singhateh also pointed out that child marriages still happened in some indigenous and ethnic communities due to their culture and social exclusion, and other reasons.
“I look forward to more information on how the new Act will be implemented and enforced, and what measures will be put in place by the government to address the many reasons why child marriage is prevalent,” Singhateh said.
She was referring to the Republic Act 11596 or An Act Prohibiting the Practice of Child Marriage and Imposing Penalties for Violations Thereof signed by former President Rodrigo Duterte in 2021. —NB, GMA Integrated News
PH leading in child sexual exploitation, says Remulla after meeting UN rapporteur
Source: Balita News
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