Sorry I wasn’t able to post this sooner. Shelley at the Visayan Forum sent this press release earlier on the concert the Visayan Forum is holding to kick off the MTV End Exploitation and Trafficking (EXIT) Philippine campaign. Here goes…
PRESS RELEASE
More than 8,000 advocates and supporters of the Philippines’ war against human trafficking shall launch a freedom march on May 22, Friday, to set the stage for the kick off concert of the MTV End Exploitation and Trafficking (EXIT) Philippine campaign.
“Trafficking has been happening right under our noses. Traffickers creatively prey on our women and children, especially during this time of financial crisis when the poor becomes most vulnerable to false promises,” said Ms. Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, President and Executive Director of the Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. (VFFI).
“The Freedom March is a protest march to express the outrage against human trafficking that trap Filipinos into inhumane treatment as sex slaves, bonded laborers, stripped of their freedom and dignity. We must protect our people at all times,” Flores-Oebanda added.
Visayan Forum Foundation, a local non-government organization involved in the rescue and reintegration of trafficking victims in coordination with port and airport task forces, is leading the multi-sectoral march to signal a massive national campaign to prevent trafficking on the ground, to warn the public, to protect and empower victims, to seek justice against traffickers, and to celebrate the efforts of champions in the ground.
At least 80 dedicated anti trafficking organizations from sea-based, land-based, and air-based organizations, community and faith-based institutions, non-government organizations, schools, private companies, NGO workers, leaders of faith-based groups, lawyer groups, law enforcers, national and local government officials and the trafficking victims themselves will join the march. Participating organizations will set up booths in the concert venue to disseminate more information about human trafficking, the services available and the measures taken to combat the crime.
Marchers will assemble along EDSA across Heritage Hotel at around 2:30 in the afternoon to proceed to the concert venue at the SM Mall of Asia Concert Grounds.
Visayan Forum Foundation partnered with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), MTV-Exit Asia and MTV- Philippines to organize free concerts in identified trafficking hotspots, namely the cities of Angeles, Cebu and Davao.
The United Nations (UN) identified trafficking in persons as the second largest illegal trade next to drugs, with estimated $10-billion annual earnings for the traffickers. UN figures also showed that 2.5 million of trafficked persons in the world come from the Asia and the Pacific region, mostly from the Philippines.
In the Philippines, trafficking for prostitution and forced labor is alarmingly on the rise amid the global financial crisis, which is being used by unscrupulous recruiters to prey on women and children who seek greener pastures away from home.
Ms. Cecil Flores-Oebanda was named by the US State Department as one of its Heroes Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery in its 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report. Last January, she was conferred with the first Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor by the US Department of Labor.
To interview Ms. Cecil Flores-Oebanda, please contact: Shelley Sibya (0929-7328198). For additional details on the War Against Human Trafficking campaign, please contact Roland Pacis (0920-9522776) and Shelley Sibya. You may also contact the Resource Development Unit of the VFFI at 709-0711/ 709-0573 loc. 104/ telefax: 421-9423.
