VOL. 9 ISSUE 158 • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2016
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EDGEDAVAO
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Serving a seamless society
MEAT TRADE. A porter delivers an 80-kilogram freshly slaughtered pork to a meat dealer at the Bankerohan Public Market in Davao City yesterday. Some businessmen in the city are asking the city government of Davao to look into the dilapidated Davao City slaughterhouse in Ma-a which causing the delay of work and delivery of meat products to the city’s public markets. Lean Daval Jr.
CHILD PROSTITUTES IN CITY RISING: NGO 60 % of women Talikala aided are below 18 EDGEDAVAO Sports BLACK EYED P15 A By RIA VALDEZ
NON-GOVERNMENT organization (NGO) has revealed that 60 percent of the 240 prostituted women they have helped are below 18 years-old. Jeanette Ampog, executive director of the Talikala Inc., bared new facts about child prostitution and trafficking in Davao City and neighboring areas in the Davao Region during yesterday’s Kapehan sa Dabaw media forum at SM City Davao at Ecoland, Davao City. “It hurts how kids talk about selling themselves for their daily meal[s],” said Am-
pog, adding that the youngest among these prostituted children is only 12 years-old. She said the child was trafficked when she was still 10, and until now she has not menstruated. According to Ampog, the increasing cases of child prostitution can be attributed to the “bugaw” or “referral system,” wherein peers of the victims act as their “agents.” What is worrisome, she said, is that the children themselves serve as pimps of their fellow prostitutes because it was “a business opportunity.”
“Children are more saleable,” said Ampog, who disclosed that clients were looking for “young and fresh faces.” She said that out of the 49 women who were recruited for their sexual services, 30 of them were children. Ampog said the children were paid P1,500 for three hours of commecial sex. Over the years, Talikala Inc. has continuously provided programs to help prostituted children turn a new leaf by providing them with skills training. The NGO has also helped
support the education of these child victims. “We have 23 children in the Alternative Learning Center (ALS) while one student is now in college,” said Ampog. With the alarming rise in the number of child prostitutes in the city, Ampog called on government agencies, particularly the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), to decisively address the situation. While NGOs like Talikala generally recognize the efforts of the government to help chil-
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