Child Trafficking in the Philippines: A Situational Analysis, c2007
Ramonesa Ricardo
Development Academy of the Philippines; International Labour Organization- International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour; UNICEF Manila
E-mail:manila@ilomnl.org.ph

This study is done to provide information that could be used to design interventions, preferably strategies that would be more effective at curbing child trafficking in the Philippines. It sought to: review current literature on child trafficking in the country; construct a model that could be used to determine the probability of an area being the source of trafficked children; determine the actual situation in selected areas; and assess the existing institutional arrangements that have been set up to combat child trafficking vis-à-vis international and national commitments.

Rapid assessment was used to determine the actual trafficking situation in nine areas in the country: Quezon City, Pasay City, the City of Manila, Camarines Norte, Northern Samar, Iloilo City, Cebu City, Davao City, Zamboanga del Sur. Where possible, in each of the nine areas, child victims of trafficking were interviewed. Community representatives, government officials, law enforcement agents, and NGO members, were also interviewed and focus group discussions conducted with some of them. Other source documents were utilized to enrich the primary data gathered. The areas chosen for the conduct of focus group discussions were those that were already known to have a high incidence of child trafficking.