After last week’s Bystandering on the welfare of women and children, we now turn our attention to children, the subject of our Women’s Kapihan last Aug. 10th at 2 to 3 p.m. on Radio Station dyLA. Discussed was the problem of Child Sex Tourism. Guest was lawyer Noemi Abarrientos of the Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB), and Cebu Women’s Network officers, board and members as panelists.
Child sex tourism commercials on Internet porn sites exploit children by prostitution and trafficking them for sex. Involved are foreign tourist-pedophiles and, shockingly, even parents! Even more alarming is that Cebu has been listed among five the “havens” for child sex tourism and prostitution in the country.
To protect chidren from this, the government urges tourism stakeholders in Cebu to help fight child sex tourism. Cebu tourism stakeholders are preparing for the launching of the Cebu Wise Tourism Campaign, an anti-child sex tourism drive spearheaded by the Department of Tourism (DOT) initially scheduled for September this year, which will highlight the National Tourism Week celebration. Seminars on this subject will be held for the tourism industry in cooperation of the DOT and the CLB. The DOT came up with this program to address growing concern for the negative impact of tourism on children.
Seminars on the education and role of parents and the local barangays in the fight against child sex tourism, may also include monitoring of airports, bus terminals and condos to help prevent child sex tourism and even rescue child victims.
During the panel discussion on the subject, cited as factors facilitating local child sex tourism were poverty, a favorable foreign money exchange rate, materialism of some parents, and even the children’s unrestricted use of the internet!
Atty. Noemi cautioned against condemning children in this case, but educating them and their parents in the use of technology and media, as well as avail of programs offered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Board Member Mayette de Egurrola on the other hand, told parents to remind their children to avoid dressy and provocative clothes and educating parents on the acts and laws against human trafficking and child abuse, among others. It turned out to be one of the most animated, informative and interesting Women’s Kapihan.
Now for the news that shocked the public this we week on the reported misuse of “pork barrel” funds by some government officials, followed by the disastrous monsoon winds, typhoons and rains that incredibly flooded Manila as well as almost all of Luzon and some parts of the Visayas, where a state of calamity has been declared and all school classes have been suspended. Thanking God that we had been blessedly spared in Cebu, came the reports on the marine accident off Lawis Ledge in Talisay City, that has resulted in the sinking of the MV St.Thomas Aquinas, the loss of lives, and the environmental crisis caused by the oil spill tainting the shores of Talisay and Cordova town. God bless Pope Francis for his prayers and expressions of concern for all these. Meanwhile, much more human and ecological concern continues to happen as I write this.
And now for the historical, cultural, religious and political significances of certain August dates. Last Aug. 15th was the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, as also the 68th anniversary of Japan’s surrendering to the Allied Forces, thus ending World War II; Aug. 19th the 134th birth anniversary of president Manuel L Quezon; Aug. 21st, is Ninoy Aquino Day in honor of the late senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino on his 30th death anniversary; August 22nd is the Feast of the Queenship of Blessed Virgin, and also the 50th Founding Anniversary of the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish at the Cebu Capitol Site, with the theme “Building a Holy Temple with Living Stones”; and Aug. 26th, on Monday, is National Heroes Day.
There is so much more to remember and consider in this eventful month of August, which should hold for next week, and which will include reports on our Zonta Club of Cebu I General Membership Meeting yesterday, and our Cebu Girl Scout Council Executive Committee meeting today.
In closing, do remember in your prayers the soul of a former co-resident here in Banawa, Cebu City, a former co-teacher at the then Cebu Normal School, (now a University), and friend, Elizabeth Ybañez Hubahib, whose remains will be lying in state and will be interred in Bantayan, Cebu.
Until then, as always, may God continue to bless us, one and all!