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O 112013Z JUN 09
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TO AMEMBASSY MANILA IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060453 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG RP
SUBJECT: PHILIPPINES -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE 
AND DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 
     ¶B. (B) STATE 005577 
 
¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. 
 
¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will 
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a 
press conference in the Department's press briefing room. 
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic 
and foreign news outlets.  Until the time of the Secretary's 
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or 
country narratives contained therein is prohibited. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press 
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter.  Also provided 
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government 
of Philippines of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's 
imminent release.  The text of the TIP Report country 
narrative is provided, both for use in informing the 
Government of the Philippines and in any local media release 
by Post's public affairs section on June 16 or thereafter. 
Drawing on information provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post 
may provide the host government with the text of the TIP 
Report narrative no earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday 
June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local 
time Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts.  Please note, 
however, that any public release of the Report's information 
should not/not precede the Secretary's release at 10:00 am 
EDT on June 16. 
 
¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at 
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 
release.  Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts 
in all countries appearing on the Report.  The Secretary's 
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of 
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis 
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website 
shortly after the June 16 event.  Ambassador de Baca will 
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign 
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on 
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local 
time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform 
the appropriate official in the Government of the Philippines 
of the June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the 
points in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the 
text of the country narrative provided in para 8.  For 
countries where the State Department has lowered the tier 
ranking, it is particularly important to advise governments 
prior to the Report being released in Washington on June 16. 
 
¶6. Action Request continued:  Please note that, for those 
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with 
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw 
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement 
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the 
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the 
narrative text.  This engagement is important to establishing 
the framework in which the government's performance will be 
judged for the 2010 Report.  If posts have questions about 
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they 
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, 
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. 
 
¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared 
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the 
press guidance provided in para 11.  If Post wishes, a local 
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP 
Report's country narrative provided in para 8. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of the Philippines, country narrative in 
the 2009 TIP Report: 
 
-------------------------------- 
PHILIPPINES (TIER 2 WATCH LIST) 
-------------------------------- 
The Philippines is a source, transit, and destination country 
for men, women, and children trafficked for commercial sexual 
exploitation and forced labor.  A significant number of 
Filipino men and women who migrate abroad for work are 
subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude in Bahrain, 
Brunei, Canada, Cote d,Ivoire, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Japan, 
Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, 
Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Arab 
Emirates.  Muslim Filipina girls from Mindanao were 
trafficked to the Middle East by other Muslims. 
 
Filipinas are also trafficked abroad for commercial sexual 
exploitation, primarily to Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, 
Singapore, South Korea, and countries in Africa, the Middle 
East, and Western Europe.  Internally, women and children are 
trafficked from poor farming communities in the Visayas and 
Mindanao to urban areas such as Manila and Cebu City, but 
also increasingly to cities in Mindanao, for commercial 
sexual exploitation or for forced labor as domestic servants 
or factory workers.  An increasing number of women and 
children from Mindanao were trafficked internally and 
transnationally for domestic work.  Traffickers used land and 
sea transportation to transfer victims from island provinces 
to major cities.  A growing trend continued to be the use of 
budget airline carriers to transport victims out of the 
country.  Traffickers used fake travel documents, falsified 
permits, and altered birth certificates.  Migrant workers 
were often subject to violence, threats, inhumane living 
conditions, non-payment of salaries, and withholding of 
travel and identity documents.  A small number of women are 
occasionally trafficked from the People,s Republic of China, 
Russia, South Korea, and Eastern Europe to the Philippines 
for commercial sexual exploitation.  NGOs suggested that 
organized crime syndicates, including syndicates from Japan, 
were heavily involved in Manila,s commercial sex industry, 
where there are many domestic and some foreign victims of 
trafficking.  International organized crime syndicates also 
transited trafficked persons from mainland China through the 
Philippines to third country destinations.  Child sex tourism 
continues to be a serious problem for the Philippines, with 
sex tourists coming from Northeast Asia, Australia, Europe, 
and North America to engage in sexual activity with minors. 
 
The Government of the Philippines does not fully comply with 
the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so.  Despite 
these overall efforts, the government did not show evidence 
of progress in convicting trafficking offenders, particularly 
those responsible for labor trafficking; therefore, the 
Philippines is placed on Tier 2 Watch List.  Although there 
was an increase in the number of trafficking cases filed in 
court, only four trafficking convictions were obtained under 
the 2003 anti-trafficking law during the reporting period, 
and  there were no reported labor trafficking convictions, 
despite widespread reports of Filipinos trafficked for forced 
labor within the country and abroad.  The number of 
convictions for sex trafficking offenders is low given the 
significant scope and magnitude of sex trafficking within the 
country and to destinations abroad.  Achieving more tangible 
results in convicting trafficking offenders, and in 
investigating and prosecuting officials complicit in 
trafficking, is essential for the Government of the 
Philippines to make more progress toward compliance with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. 
 
Recommendations for the Philippines:  Significantly improve 
efforts to prosecute, convict, and punish trafficking 
offenders, including officials complicit in trafficking; 
dedicate more resources to efforts to prosecute trafficking 
cases; assess methods to measure and address domestic labor 
trafficking; implement anti-trafficking awareness campaigns 
directed at domestic and foreign clients of the sex trade in 
the Philippines; dedicate increased funding for the 
Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) and improve 
anti-trafficking coordination between government agencies; 
disseminate information on the 2003 law throughout the 
country; and train law enforcement officers and prosecutors 
on the use of the 2003 law. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Philippine government demonstrated sustained but 
inadequate efforts to convict trafficking offenders during 
the reporting period.  The Philippines criminally prohibits 
trafficking for both sexual and labor exploitation through 
its 2003 Anti-Trafficking Persons Act, which prescribes 
penalties that are sufficiently stringent and commensurate 
with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape. 
 The government has convicted twelve individuals of 
trafficking since the passage of this act, all for sex 
trafficking offenses.  During the reporting period four 
individuals in three cases of sex trafficking were convicted 
in Philippine courts; three of the convictions were a result 
of cases filed and prosecuted by an NGO on behalf of victims 
under an approach where the Philippines allows private 
attorneys to prosecute cases under the direction and control 
of public prosecutors.  One convicted trafficker was 
sentenced to life imprisonment, and the remaining three were 
sentenced to 20 years, imprisonment, in addition to fines 
and damages.  In December 2008, after a four-year trial, a 
judge acquitted an accused trafficker charged with 
transporting minors from Mindanao to Manila with the intent 
of forcing them into prostitution because the minors were 
rescued before they were actually forced into prostitution. 
The case is being appealed.  NGOs report that an impediment 
to successful trafficking prosecutions is the lack of 
understanding of trafficking among judges, prosecutors, and 
especially law enforcement officers, some of whom have 
limited knowledge of using evidence to build cases.  The 
government did not  convict any offenders of labor 
trafficking during the reporting period.  Philippine law 
enforcement agencies reported 168 alleged trafficking cases 
to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2008, of which 
prosecutors initiated prosecutions in 97 of the cases, an 
increase of more than 60 percent over the prior year.  The 
remaining cases remain under preliminary investigation or 
were dismissed for lack of evidence or witnesses, or on other 
grounds.  In November 2008, the Philippine government 
assisted Malaysian authorities in the case of a Singaporean 
recruiter who allegedly trafficked Filipina women to Malaysia 
for commercial sexual exploitation. 
 
The government,s ability to effectively prosecute 
trafficking crimes is severely limited by an inefficient 
judicial system and endemic corruption.  Despite a 2005 
Department of Justice circular instructing that all 
trafficking cases receive preferential attention, trials 
often take years to conclude, because of a lack of judges and 
courtrooms, high judge turnover, and non-continuous trials, 
which cause some victims to withdraw their testimony. 
Prosecutors with the DOJ,s Anti-Trafficking Task Force 
handle trafficking cases along with many other types of 
cases, but receive special training to handle trafficking 
cases.  A high vacancy rate among judges significantly slowed 
trial times further.  In 2008, the Philippine Overseas 
Employment Agency (POEA) filed 318 administrative cases 
against licensed labor recruiters who used fraudulent and 
deceptive offers to entice job seekers abroad or imposed 
inappropriately high or illegal fees on prospective 
employees.  There were seven convictions under the illegal 
recruitment law in 2008. 
 
Corruption among law enforcement agents remained pervasive, 
and some law enforcement and immigration officers were 
complicit in trafficking and permitted organized crime groups 
involved in trafficking to conduct their illegal activities. 
 It is widely believed that some government officials were 
directly involved in or profited from trafficking operations 
within the country.  Law enforcement officers often extracted 
protection money from illegitimate businesses, including 
brothels, in return for tolerating their operation.  During 
the reporting period, there were several reports of 
immigration officials involved in the trafficking of 
Filipinos overseas.  The government conducted investigations 
during the year into official complicity or involvement in 
trafficking, but cases were still pending.  The government 
did not prosecute or convict any officials for 
trafficking-related corruption during the reporting period. 
In September 2008, an Immigration officer was apprehended for 
her alleged role in aiding the trafficking of 17 Mindanao 
children to Syria and Jordan, but charges against her were 
dropped due to insufficient evidence.  The 2005 case of 
police officer Dennis Reci, charged for allegedly trafficking 
minors for commercial sexual exploitation at his night club 
in Manila, was still pending in early 2009. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
The Philippines government continued to provide support 
services to victims of human trafficking, including through 
sustained partnerships with NGOs and international 
organizations.  Police sometimes brought charges of vagrancy 
against victims, despite laws that seek to ensure that 
victims are not penalized for crimes related to acts of 
trafficking.  The government actively encouraged victims to 
assist in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking 
and related crimes, but the financial and emotional costs of 
prolonged and delayed court proceedings, which may take place 
in other provinces, often deterred victims from doing so. 
Fear of retaliation by their traffickers sometimes led 
victims to recant their testimony.  Although the government 
offered victims modest protection from reprisals and economic 
dislocation, a lack of funding and awareness prevented 
victims from being offered more effective incentives for 
assisting in prosecutions of trafficking offenders.  The 
government provides temporary residency status, relief from 
deportation, shelter, and access to legal, medical, and 
psychological services to trafficking victims.  The 
Department of Social Welfare and Development operated 42 
temporary shelters for victims of all types of crimes 
throughout the country that were available to trafficking 
victims.  The Philippine Ports Authority provided buildings 
and amenities at halfway houses for trafficking victims at 
seven ports, which were managed by an NGO.  The Manila 
International Airport Authority and a partner NGO opened a 
halfway house at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in 
¶2008.  The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) extended 
assistance to Philippine citizens trafficked abroad and 
managed repatriations.  The Department of Labor and 
Employment (DOLE) deployed 40 labor attaches who served in 
embassies around the world to help protect migrant workers. 
DOLE operated 20 Filipino Worker Resource Centers in 17 key 
labor destination countries, providing services and shelter 
to Filipinos who have suffered abuse or trafficking 
conditions. In addition, DOLE,s Overseas Workers Welfare 
Administration (OWWA) continued to send welfare officers 
abroad to support the work of labor attaches.  The IACAT 
released a manual on the recovery and reintegration of 
trafficking victims and developed national performance 
standards for government handling of cases of violence 
against women, including trafficking. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
The Philippine government demonstrated continued efforts to 
raise awareness and prevent trafficking in persons, mainly 
for migrant workers, during the reporting period.  In 2008, 
POEA conducted 1,250 pre-employment orientation seminars for 
over 60,000 departing overseas Filipino workers and trained 
approximately 130 local government units on how to identify 
warning signs of illegal recruitment and human trafficking, 
representing a significant increase over the number of local 
government units trained in 2007.  POEA also trained 
diplomatic staff and overseas labor and social welfare 
officers in methods for assisting trafficking victims abroad. 
 Since its establishment in 2004, the government has not 
provided funding to IACAT.  While lacking a substantial 
budget, the IACAT cooperated with NGO anti-trafficking 
initiatives, including a road-show campaign against human 
trafficking in Mindanao.  IACAT continued to support the 
creation of local IACAT councils and created model 
anti-trafficking local ordinances.  The government continued 
to turn over suspected U.S. citizen child sex tourists to the 
U.S. government for prosecution in the United States.  The 
government did not make any efforts to reduce the demand for 
child sex tourism.  Prior to deployment of troops for 
peacekeeping operations, the Department of National Defense 
and the Philippine National Police conducted seminars and 
training for peacekeepers, including a training module on 
trafficking.  The government routinely provided training on 
anti-trafficking and victim protection to personnel bound for 
overseas assignments.  In 2008, DFA, with support from an 
international NGO developed a computer-based, 
anti-trafficking course that trained 350 foreign service 
officers.  The government did not make any other efforts to 
reduce the demand for commercial sex acts in the Philippines, 
despite the country,s thriving commercial sex industry; nor 
did the government take discernable steps to address the 
demand for forced labor. 
 
¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer 
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to 
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report 
country narrative: 
 
(begin non-paper) 
 
-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), 
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to 
Congress.  The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and 
create partnerships around the world in the fight against 
modern-day slavery.  The USG approach to combating human 
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in 
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol").  The TVPA 
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in 
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex 
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, 
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological 
manipulation.  While much attention has focused on 
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol 
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a 
showing that the victim was moved. 
 
-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that 
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking 
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, 
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of 
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of 
three tiers.  Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum 
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" 
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1.  Countries 
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, 
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum 
standards are classified as Tier 2.  Countries assessed as 
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making 
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. 
 
-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a 
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. 
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to 
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the 
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of 
each year.  Countries are included on the "Special Watch 
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP 
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been 
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: 
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human 
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant 
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over 
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of 
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim 
population.  As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been 
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after 
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier 
¶3.  Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this 
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP 
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to 
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report).  The new law allows for a waiver 
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a 
determination by the President that the country has developed 
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make 
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the 
minimum standards. 
 
-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory 
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on 
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance 
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for 
participation by government officials or employees in 
educational and cultural exchange programs.   In addition, 
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to 
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other 
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, 
trade-related or certain types of development assistance) 
with respect to countries on Tier 3.  Countries classified as 
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's 
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in 
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier 
classification, would avoid such sanctions.  Guidelines for 
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared 
by Posts with host governments. 
 
-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of 
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of 
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and 
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon:  fraudulent 
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in 
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor 
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the 
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship 
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal 
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor.  As the 
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced 
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and 
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion.  The 
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the 
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated 
"cost of coercion." 
 
-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on 
website www.state.gov/g/tip. 
 
-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the 
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State 
Department.  We are providing you an advance copy of your 
country's narrative in that report.  Please keep this 
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June 
¶16.  The State Department will also hold a general briefing 
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 
17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
(end non-paper) 
 
¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country 
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web 
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as 
possible after the TIP Report is released.  Funding for 
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human 
Rights Report.  Posts needing financial assistance for 
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX 
office. 
 
¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use 
with local media. 
 
Q1: Why was the Philippines downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List? 
 
A: The Government of the Philippines does not fully comply 
with the minimum standards for the elimination of 
trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do 
so.  Despite these overall efforts, the government did not 
show evidence of progress in convicting trafficking 
offenders, particularly those responsible for labor 
trafficking; therefore, the Philippines is placed on Tier 2 
Watch List.   Although there was an increase in the number of 
trafficking cases filed in court,  only four trafficking 
convictions were obtained under the 2003 anti-trafficking law 
during the reporting period, and  there were no reported 
labor trafficking prosecutions or convictions, despite 
widespread reports of Filipinos trafficked for forced labor 
within the country and abroad.    The low number of 
convictions for sex trafficking offenders is also inadequate 
given the significant scope and magnitude of sex trafficking 
within the country and to destinations abroad. 
 
Q2: What progress has the Philippines made in the past year? 
 
A: The Philippines government continued to provide support 
services to victims of human trafficking, including through 
sustained partnerships with NGOs and international 
organizations.   The Manila International Airport Authority 
and a partner NGO opened a halfway house at the Ninoy Aquino 
International Airport in 2008.  The Department of Foreign 
Affairs (DFA) continued to assist Philippine citizens 
trafficked abroad and managed repatriations.  The Department 
of Labor and Employment (DOLE) deployed 40 labor attaches who 
served in embassies around the world to help protect migrant 
workers.  DOLE operated 20 Filipino Worker Resource Centers 
in 17 key labor destination countries, providing services and 
shelter to Filipinos who have suffered abuse or trafficking 
conditions. The Philippine government also demonstrated 
continued efforts to raise awareness and prevent trafficking 
in persons, mainly for migrant workers, during the reporting 
period. 
 
Q3:  What efforts could the Philippines make to improve its 
fight against trafficking in persons? 
 
A: The Government of the Philippines could:  significantly 
improve efforts to prosecute, convict, and punish trafficking 
offenders, including officials complicit in trafficking; 
dedicate more resources to efforts to prosecute trafficking 
cases; assess methods to measure and address domestic labor 
trafficking; implement anti-trafficking awareness campaigns 
directed at domestic and foreign clients of the sex trade in 
the Philippines; dedicate increased funding for the 
Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) and improve 
anti-trafficking coordination between government agencies; 
disseminate information on the 2003 law throughout the 
country; and train law enforcement officers and prosecutors 
on the use of the 2003 law. 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON