‘Children of the evening dew’

THEY are called “Shine Girls” in Davao. Batang tun-og or “children of the evening dew” in General Santos. “Vitamin C” in Cagayan de Oro.

 Theirs is a shared story: Born into poverty, robbed of their childhoods, sold for sex.

 Grace was 13 and had high hopes of leaving the hard life in Northern Samar when she quit high school to work as a maid in the big city, just like her mother. But the domestic work in Manila promised by recruiters turned out to be sex work in the red light district of Angeles City, Pampanga.

 “I never imagined I would land in this kind of job, but finding myself trapped and without any money, I started working right away,” she says.

 After three years of waiting on tables and dancing in bars, Grace made the transition from “entertainment” to “sex work”.

 Earning the bar fine ruled Grace’s daily life that began at 5 p.m. and ended at 3 a.m. Numbed by drugs and alcohol, she would service as many as 10 men in a single night.

Then there is Marilyn who relates how she was paid P10,000 for her virginity.

“I did get the P10,000, but learned later that he paid P20,000. I don’t know what happened to the rest of the money,” she says. “They taught me to take shabu to overcome my shyness. When I first arrived at the bar, I used to take ecstasy and a sleeping pill, downed with beer.”

Not all children are trafficked from the provinces to Manila. Children are also trafficked from cities to provinces.

Tessa, then 17, was a fresh high school graduate from Montalban, Rizal, when she was brought to a strip show in Cebu City and issued work documents that said she was older than she really was.

“There was no mention of dancing or bringing in bar fines. We were only informed that we would be entertaining foreigners, making lots of money, and being given an allowance,” she recalls.

But the terms of payment make sure the girls are always financially enslaved to their employers. For example, a girl keeps only P500 from the P1,500 bar fine; the rest is split between the manager and the bar.

Apart from basic living expenses, the girls shoulder the cost of condoms, which customers may or may not use. Even payment for fake birth certificates, identification cards and other documents needed to secure three-month hygiene passes are deducted from the girls’ salaries.

“From the nightclub, we would go to the house where they kept us. Some girls would quarrel over the limited food. Second helpings were not allowed,” Mylene says.

Girls deemed too plump to attract customers ate even less, with only one meal allowed them daily. Employers also forced them to do various household chores—from doing the laundry to cleaning floors, in between nightly jobs at the club.

Like prisoners

“We would get some sleep, and when we awake, we have to do it all over again,” says Mylene. “We told them we can’t dance anymore; we want to go home. At times, I wanted to end my life, as I felt trapped there forever. We never went out. We were like prisoners. We weren’t free.”

 Also in her Cebu City brothel was Liza, 19, who felt the same way as Mylene and decided she could take no more of the abuse.

While waiting for a chance to earn a little more money so she could go home, Liza learned about the End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes or ECPAT.INVUE.

“I went to ECPAT and they interviewed me,” she says. “They asked me if I knew anyone who needed help and wanted to go home to Manila. And then I faced a judge. I told him about the girls being sold, maltreated. It’s like they’ve raped and killed all the girls, about our earnings that they pocketed.

“Then I asked the girls if they wanted to escape, and they said yes. So I told them, let’s do it. The day of the raid, I was on board a plane back to Manila.”

Forty-three girls were rescued and later charges were filed against their recruiters. In such rescue operations, various government agencies come into action.

The biggest role is that of the Philippine National Police, the primary agency tasked to do surveillance, investigation and arrest.

Collaborating together, the labor, health and social welfare departments conduct child-sensitive rescue operations, followed by medical evaluation, protective custody, psychosocial services and reintegration.

The Department of Tourism cancels the accreditation and blacklists establishments that promote prostitution.

All these are part of the Plan of Action Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation, coordinated by the Council for the Welfare of Children, the lead government agency for the protection, welfare and development of children.

These efforts have helped child prostitutes find the strength to speak up, claim their rights, and start new lives.

Since the raid and rescue, Liza has been appearing as principal witness in the trial of her abusers, unfazed by the presence of her captors, and clearly empowered by the key role she played in securing the warrant of arrest for the recruiters.

She is also back to school, together with Tessa, learning culinary skills at a government vocational training institution.

Through a social worker in Angeles City, Grace was also fortunate enough to get in touch with the Third World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women.

After seven years in sexual slavery, Grace has found refuge at this NGO’s Nazareth Growth Home, a halfway house set up for women who opt out of sex work.

Tessa, Liza and Grace. Three faces among the 4 million Filipino child workers, of whom around 60,000 to 100,000 are in prostitution. –Source ILO