Easy, queasy money: Cash, health
risks part of Philippine sex trade
By Kendra Helmer, Stars
and Stripes
Carlos Bongioanni / Stars and Stripes
While getting her earrings readjusted, a Filipina night club worker at Angeles City lifts
her leg to give a side view of her figure. |
(First in a three-part series on the sex trade in the Philippines.)
ANGELES CITY, Philippines — Along a darkened section of Fields Avenue, outside the
former Clark Air Base, "Jessica" trolls for customers.
A group of young U.S. servicemen walks by; some comment on the attractiveness of
Jessica and others in the scantily clad group.
"Don’t even think about it," says one serviceman to another. "You
know why they’re in the dark, don’t you?"
Jessica doesn’t tell her customers she is a transvestite. For 1,000 pesos (about
$20), she sells sexual favors, often to U.S. troops.
"If they’re drunk," Jessica nervously laughs, "they don’t know
I’m not a girl."
For Jessica and other sex workers along the strip — both legally registered in the
bars and those who operate on the streets as "free-lancers" — it’s
"easy money."
And when U.S. servicemen are in town, the money just gets easier.
Prostitution is illegal in the Philippines. But women register to work in the
"entertainment industry," a euphemism for the sex trade.
While military officials do not condone such contact, troops are briefed on health
issues and some units distribute condoms.
During a recent two-week Balikatan military exercise, the 2,000 U.S. servicemembers who
participated spent about $3 million around Clark Field, an economic development zone and
former U.S. air base, for a variety of services, including entertainment.
"They spent a lot on the girls," said a Filipino government official who
asked not to be identified.
The Clark Development Corp. manages the economic free zone on the former air base. When
U.S. troops are deployed here, they train jointly at Clark Field’s airstrip. Most of
the troops stay in hotels inside Clark.
Liberty and curfew restrictions that kept troops inside Clark during most of the
exercise did not hinder the sex trade, said a corporation official.
"There was bigger business for the girls working inside Clark," than for the
girls working outside the zone, he said.
Licensed trade
Bringing sex workers onto Clark is considered a "special project" within the
Clark Development Corp. economic zone, the corporation official said.
Although it’s considered an "underground" business, the official said
all the women are reputable entertainment workers from the go-go bars outside Clark.
"They’re all licensed and have health permits from the Angeles City [Social]
Hygiene Clinic. … They’re checked once or twice a week" for sexually
transmitted diseases, the official said.
Women who work as registered entertainers in the bars that line Fields Avenue —
known as "Sin City" — wear tags showing the date and results of their last
health check.
The free, city-sponsored checkups are mandatory for registered entertainers. The women
have an incentive to visit the clinics often: Without up-to-date tags, they won’t
attract as many customers to earn their commissions.
The mandatory health checks do not include HIV tests. According to the World Health
Organization’s Web site, the Philippines has a low rate of HIV/AIDS.
Philippines AIDS laws stipulate that civic officials cannot force anyone to be tested
for AIDS. However, city officials recently tested 300 women from Fields Avenue. The women
who tested positive will not know their HIV status unless they ask for the test results.
Unregistered streetwalkers such as Jessica don’t get the checkups or wear the
tags. But Jessica says she and her customers are safe because she uses condoms to perform
oral sex.
Military customers
At the Holiday Inn at Clark, where hundreds of troops stayed during Balikatan, several
laughed about the steady stream of women leaving the hotel early every morning, escorted
by servicemen.
One had three women with him. With a hand on one woman’s backside, he pulled
another to him and gave her a kiss. His grin spread from ear to ear.
Another night, a young American serviceman was almost frantic as he spoke on a lobby
phone. "Where are the girls?" he blurted out impatiently.
Another young serviceman in the lobby was loudly ranting with his friends about his
exploits.
But many of the women aren’t paid sex workers — they say they just want
American boyfriends who may offer them a better life.
On Fields Avenue, women stand in front of dozens of neon-lit "hostess" bars,
coaxing customers to come inside. Outside, homeless people in rags compete with street
children to hound tourists for spare change.
"You go in the bars, the girls sit with you and talk with you, and you just buy
the drinks," said one U.S. sailor from Okinawa. "The house gets a cut, and after
you talk to the person in charge, you pay more — whatever the house prescribes. Then
she can leave with you."
Or, as a 20-year-old Marine lance corporal from Okinawa bluntly put it,
"She’s yours for the night."
Some of the Marine’s friends paid for such services and took the women to hotels.
He recalled how his buddies told of the fear they saw in the women’s eyes.
"Some of the girls started crying. … They (the servicemen) felt bad, and gave
them more money and walked away."
"A lot of people think they’re whores," the sailor said. "I’d
give the benefit of the doubt to the women. … Maybe they’re with you because
they like you. If you talk to them, you’ll find out they’re in a sad situation.
"They’re there out of necessity. One had a 4-year-old … the only place
she could find a job is dancing."
Good-paying jobs are hard to find in the economically depressed country.
As of 1997, 32 percent of the population lived below the poverty line. The unemployment
rate was 9.6 percent in 1998, according to the CIA’s World Fact book Web site. Many
people go abroad for work: An estimated 7.5 million Filipinos work in foreign countries,
according to the Philippines’ department of Foreign Affairs.
‘They lose their dignity’
Faith quit her low-paying job as an accounting clerk to work at the Forbidden City, a
theater renovated into a club on Clark. It’s a world away from the sleaziness of
Fields Avenue, she says.
"It’s much classier than outside," the 22-year-old said. "Our boss
wants us to have a better image, to show that we’re not cheap. We’re not allowed
to have sex with the customers. But there are several who do it because they like the
guy."
Faith was in the Holiday Inn one night during Balikatan, handing out fliers for a club
event billed as "Le Butt." More than 100 servicemen walked the short distance to
the club that night — liberty restrictions kept them on base — so Forbidden City
was one of the few places in the zone they could go to unwind.
Faith was one of a couple dozen smiling young women walking around the club, trying to
chat up servicemen over the deafening music, leading them onto the dance floor, grinding
up against them. The women look like any others having a good time on a disco dance floor,
but they’re paid to dance and talk to the customers.
When a disc jockey announced the beginning of the "Le Butt" show, the dance
floor cleared. A woman in a tight shirt and short skirt slowly walked onto the stage, a
spotlight following her as she danced slowly.
The whistles and few catcalls turned to shouts and laughter as the dancer took off her
top and sauntered over to a serviceman, rubbing up against him. Even those already with
women on their arms didn’t take their eyes off the dancer, who eventually shed all of
her clothes.
"Wow," one soldier breathed. "They didn’t do that the
other night."
The dancers for "Le Butt" were brought in from other clubs.
Faith wrinkled her nose in disgust when talking about other "bar girls" and
streetwalkers. "We look at them as the lower ones. We don’t like them: the way
they dress, the way they move, everything."
Glen, 29, a cashier at the Forbidden City, likes when servicemen are in town.
"Filipinas like foreigners. But I disagree with the girls from here going to a hotel
with them. They lose their dignity, and it makes us all look bad. I met one nice guy and
he said, ‘Perhaps you’d like to visit me in my villa.’ But I’d never
do that."
Many of the men seek a good time and don’t distinguish between the prostitutes and
the women just out for fun, said Mandy, a 21-year-old Filipina. She paced the club’s
restroom, crying and trying to keep her mascara from running. The college student heard
that servicemen were in town for a military exercise, so she made the four-hour trip from
Manila to make some new friends.
"I was talking to a military guy and his friend disrespected me. His friend said,
‘I want her next,’" she sniffed.
"They’re all jerks."
Carlos Bongioanni contributed to this report.
RELATED STORY:
During Cobra
Gold, servicemembers stayed out of trouble in Pattaya
Back to June stories
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