It is good that the campaign against the social sin that is human trafficking is gathering steam and that all sectors are being engaged to fight against commerce in persons.
Enjoining the public through education to fight trafficking yielded a great result in last Friday’s arrest at Cebu’s pier 4 of two Tagalog-speaking women who had in tow 15 Boholanas.
Most of them were minors, all allegedly set to be cast away in exchange for cash to whatever fate awaited them in Manila.
The police operation to rescue the girls, supported by the International Justice Mission (IJM) which combats trafficking, would not have been made possible had a port security guard not tipped off maritime police about the victims.
The guard, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, noticed telltale signs of ongoing trafficking about the would-be Superferry 12 passengers.
Porters at Pier 4 told Cebu Daily News they attended a Visayan Forum seminar two weeks ago to help them detect persons who violate the law against human trafficking.
However, recent raids of traffickers and their twins, the cyberporn operators who transmit to patrons abroad through the Internet images of children in sex acts, have shown that training people to report lawbreakers is not enough.
Senior Supt. Anthony Obenza, head of the Lapu-Lapu City police, said some husbands are responsible for making commodities of their wives and children in cybersex dens that global porn rings, like the one that authorities busted last Thursday, can easily reach with their shrewd, perverse tentacles.
So the fight against trafficking and cybersex begins at home and the Department of Education (DepEd) hit the nail on the head by deciding last week to enlist Parents-Teachers Associations.
“We would discuss and discourage cybersex in the family,” said Regional Director Ricaredo Borgonia of Dep-Ed 7.
“The parents have direct influence over their children. They should know how to safeguard them properly.”
Indeed, the inability of the parents of the 15 Bohol girls to identify an apparently illegal recruiter, leaving their children in the hands of Emma Locadio and daughter Sheryl, only shows how crucial parent education is in the fight against trafficking and cyberporn.
Parents in general should be trained to be on alert against traffickers and porn masters by institutions like IJM, DepEd, the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
In Congress, where Rep. Luigi Quisumbing of Cebu’s 6th district called for an inquiry into cybersex, lawmakers should create mechanisms for some parents, perhaps under the auspices of Church groups, to go through values education modules.
That way, they will realize the unspeakable horror of exchanging for the pittance that is cash the invaluable souls and dignity of our vulnerable little ones.