Protecting Our Children | Inquirer Opinion

The arrest of alleged child sex trafficker Teddy Jay Mojeca Mejia in Dubai is a positive development for a country known as a hotbed of online child sexual abuse and exploitation (OSAEC).

Mejia, who was repatriated from Dubai last week, is accused of abusing and exploiting 111 underage girls by making them pose nude or filming them being raped, and then selling the material online. Mejia’s victims were between the ages of 9 and 15.

However, there are still many abusers and perpetrators who continue to commit crimes against vulnerable children. Tragically, many of them are even known to or relatives of the victims.

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President Marcos himself said it was a shame that the Philippines had a shameful record of child sexual abuse. This shame, he said, should not be allowed to continue, especially in a country known for its high standards of family values. “It is a horrible statistic… I can’t help but wonder how many are left?”

Lack of reliable data

The International Justice Mission (IJM) and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab said, based on 2022 data, that nearly one in every 100 children in the Philippines “was trafficked to produce child abuse material for profit.”

According to the Department of the Interior and Local Government, there were 22,421 children who suffered abuse, neglect and other forms of violence in the Philippines in the first half of this year. The government rescued 169 victims and arrested 51 suspects from January to September.

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Last year, there were 2,740,905 reports of suspected online child sexual exploitation in the Philippines, based on data from the United States National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Given the overwhelming number of cases, and despite the passage of Republic Act. No. 11930 which penalizes online child abuse and exploitation, it is unlikely that all of them have been addressed. This means that offenders continue to exploit vulnerable children.

UN Special Rapporteur Mama Fatima Singhateh said during a visit to the country in 2022 that there is a lack of reliable data collection. “It is essential to systematically collect reliable, centralized and disaggregated data by age, gender, ethnicity, disability, including the number of prosecutions and convictions in relation to cases of child sexual abuse.”

Makabata helpline 163

In addition to data collection, it is also essential to train those charged with receiving, investigating and trying perpetrators of OSAEC. Singhateh noted that trained individuals should be available at the barangay level, which is the first resort for the majority of victims.

Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. has already called on local governments to pass ordinances to address the rise in child abuse cases. There is also the Makabata hotline 1383 that the public can use to report cases, but how many people know that such a hotline exists? The government does not need to repeat the success of Bantay Bata 163, a social welfare program of the ABS-CBN Foundation that aims to protect underprivileged and at-risk children, but it should use this program as a benchmark for launching and delivering an effective public service.

The government should also consider Singhateh’s suggestion to set up a separate court for children, separate from the family courts, so that these cases can be addressed promptly and the trauma to the victims can be minimized.

The core of the problem

It could also revisit the IJM’s earlier suggestions to speed up the response to OSAEC, including the strict enforcement of RA 11934 or the SIM Registration Act to “detect, block and report child sexual exploitation materials, including abuse via live streaming.” When the law was first passed, the government was so excited about what it could do to crack down on malicious individuals, but online crimes – from sexual exploitation to financial scams – continue to rise. The government must take necessary measures, whether it’s a problem with implementation or the need to give the law more teeth.

Another suggestion was that the Anti-Money Laundering Council and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas establish clear guidelines and regulations that would compel Philippine banks and money transfer companies to detect, intercept and report transactions that could be related to OSAEC.

The root of the problem, of course, is poverty, which makes poor families vulnerable to the exploitation of people like Mejia. Not only should he be held accountable for his crimes, but the government could use him to help uncover this evil network that preys on children.

Government, private sector and community all need to do their part because if it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to protect a child.