With or without visiting U.S. troops,
sex trade is thriving in Philippines
By Carlos Bongioanni
and Kendra Helmer, Stars and Stripes
Carlos Bongioanni / Stars and Stripes
This Internet Cafe in Angeles City, Philippines, offers customers a chance to pull up a
list of local girls who have nude pictures of themselves. The customer can select a girl,
send her an email, and arranges to meet her at the computer center or some other location. |
(Second in a three-part series on the sex trade in the Philippines.)
ANGELES CITY, Philippines — The sex trade has long been a part of life in the
Philippines, but some groups warn prostitution is on the rise since the Philippines
government has allowed U.S. troops to resume military training and exercises here, said a
Philippines government official.
"While we’re concerned about that perception, there is no evidence that the
U.S. military’s presence is responsible for the prostitution problem," said the
official, who didn’t want to be identified. "Even without the military
exercises, we have tourists from Australia, Japan and elsewhere who come here for the
entertainment industry."
Many of the men strolling along Fields Avenue, known as "Sin City," are
retired GIs.
The bar district outside the former Clark Air Base is "still rocking and rolling,
except it’s filled with all these guys who are 50 on up," said Robert Blume, 61,
an investment promotion manager with the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.
"All these old guys spend their life on Fields Avenue."
On any given day, there are about 50 former military men in the Visiting Forces
Agreement post near Clark, "quite often with a lot of younger girls in there,"
he said. "Often they’re caretakers, holding them up. Most of them have their
nursemaid, I guess you would say."
A U.S. military presence in the Philippines may not cause prostitution, but it
aggravates the problem, said Madonna Carlos, an official for the IMA foundation, a
women’s rights nongovernmental organization in Angeles City.
After the Philippines government ratified the Visiting Forces Agreement that allowed
U.S. forces to resume training in the country, Angeles City saw a surge of registered
women entertainers, Carlos said.
In 1998, the city had 2,700 registered entertainers. By the end of 1999, the year the
VFA was ratified, the number jumped to 4,778. That number does not include unregistered
"freelancers" who walk the streets looking for business.
The ratification of the VFA also prompted club owners in Angeles City to renovate their
establishments, in anticipation of the arrival of U.S. troops, Carlos said.
Although prostitution is illegal in the Philippines, Carlos said it is "de
facto" a legalized activity in places like Angeles City.
The city-sponsored hygiene clinics are there, in essence, to protect the sex industry,
she said. They’re intended to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases to
male customers.
STD briefings
Before deployments to foreign countries, troops are briefed on health concerns,
including the prevalence of STDs.
"Our main message is to abstain from sexual activity while deployed. Period,"
18th Medical Group officials on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, said in a written statement.
"However, prevention measures such as condoms are discussed because not all will
choose to abstain."
Some units purchase condoms to distribute to deploying troops, and the condoms are
available through the government supply system, the officials said.
The health protection briefings are tailored to the destination. Some areas, such as
Thailand’s infamous Pattaya, are known for prostitution and have a high HIV/AIDS
rate. In Australia, prostitutes advertise their services in newspapers.
According to the World Health Organization’s Web site, an estimated 29,000 people
were believed to be living with HIV in 1998. Ninety percent of cases are sexually
transmitted.
Before Navy deployments, hospital corpsmen find out where the ships are going, and then
research the area to determine what diseases are prevalent, said a Sasebo Naval Base
sailor who has worked in the health field and who asked not to be identified. The corpsmen
then put together a packet of information that is distributed to sailors.
"Condoms are passed out on the ships, but not on every ship," he said.
"They tell the sailors that if they have to do it (have sex while deployed), to keep
it wrapped."
But not everyone listens.
"The threat is real," said a sailor on Okinawa who was in the Philippines for
the Balikatan military exercises in May. "You always have some who don’t listen
to any kind of advice. Those guys are a bunch of dummies."
Troops are told that one night of pleasure isn’t worth risking ruining their
lives.
"After being in the field, that’s why so many Marines do it," said a
20-year-old Marine lance corporal from Okinawa, noting that most use condoms. "But
I’m not that type of person. Those guys are just having fun."
But, he noted, "A lot of these guys are married."
Adultery is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
"If anyone is married and totally committed to his wife, they’re not going to
do it," the Okinawa sailor said. "If you’re gonna cheat, you’re gonna
cheat no matter what country you’re in."
Taboo topic
The subject is taboo for many servicemembers. Those who discuss it face ridicule and
scorn from their peers who adhere to an unwritten code that states, "What happens on
float, stays on float."
Many of those walking along Fields Avenue last month didn’t want their photos
taken with Filipinas. One serviceman shouted obscenities at a Stripes photographer.
The sex industry is an evil that pops up wherever U.S. forces deploy, not just the
Philippines, said Marine Capt. Jamison Yi, a helicopter pilot from Marine Corps Air
Station Futenma, Okinawa, who deployed to the Philippines. Yet he tries not to pass
judgment on others.
"I try to influence them through my own example … Part of leadership is the
moral aspect. It’s not just about saying, ‘Follow me. Let’s take that
hill.’
"Marines are supposed to set high moral standards. That doesn’t apply for
just on duty but also for off-duty hours … What’s the difference between lying
to the commandant and lying to your wife?"
A chaplain from Okinawa counters the "what happens on float" motto with one
of his own. "What comes around goes around … Your sins will find you out,"
he said he tells troops during predeployment briefings.
During his briefing, standard for all deployments, the chaplain said he tries to awaken
the troops’ moral sensibilities by asking for a show of hands of those who believe in
slavery. No hands go up. But then he tells the troops that when they hire sex workers in
many of the countries where they deploy, they are, in fact, perpetuating the servitude of
many women who are virtual slaves in the sex industry.
The chaplain realizes that much of what he says falls on deaf ears. Many of the men are
fresh out of high school or in their early 20s and cannot contain their excitement,
knowing they are deployed to places where the sex trade is heavy and cheap.
Several troops said the hectic pace of deployment is exhausting, and there’s no
time for such entertainment.
"I have no desire to partake in the booze and rather shady women outside the
gate," one soldier from Japan laughed. "That’s just not my cup of
tea."
Protecting the women
Officials at the IMA women’s rights foundation want civic leaders to abolish the
hygiene clinic set up in the heart of the entertainment zone and targets only the sex
workers. They want it replaced with a clinic in a more neutral part of town that provides
comprehensive medical services for all women.
Curbing STDs is a good thing, said Carlos, but when that effort is being exploited to
further the sex trade, it is counterproductive.
The foundation also wants law enforcement officials to go after the real culprits
behind prostitution: the pimps and club owners. Instead, Carlos said, whenever city
authorities make token efforts to curb the sex trade, they arrest the women.
Protecting women’s rights is central to IMA’s mission. Even though the
organization is opposed to prostitution, it stands up for the sex workers by informing
them that the police cannot charge them of crimes unless they catch them in the act.
The way police target women is just another example of how women are exploited at every
level of Philippine society, Carlos said.
"The real root of the problem in the Philippines is the inequality that exists
against women … the patriarchal system that allows the dominance of one powerful
group against a weak group of women and children."
Violence, intimidation, coercion and deception are the underlying reasons why Filipina
women become prostitutes, she added.
Yet, the stereotype of women being the helpless victims of a male-dominated society
does not fit cross-dressing prostitutes like Jessica, a transvestite who works along
Fields Avenue. She managed to pay for hormone-enhanced breasts but says she walks the
street because she has no choice. And she has others to think of, she says, tossing her
hair and flashing chipped purple nail polish.
"I don’t like doing this, but I’m the breadwinner for my friend and her
three kids."
Others said they believe prostitutes choose their own destiny regardless of their
economic or social plight in life. And the lifestyle choices are made regardless of the
U.S. military presence in the country, said one middle-aged woman from Angeles City.
"Those crazy girls choose to be prostitutes … and it’s not true that the
immorality is caused by the American presence" said the woman whose Filipino husband
left her 20 years ago for a sex worker from Fields Avenue.
"There are two schools of thought on the subject," said Jocelyn Bonilla, a
social worker with the Pearl S. Buck International Inc., a nongovernmental agency that
works with Amerasian children.
"Some say they choose their lifestyle, while others say they’re trapped
… But one sex worker I met explained it to me the best," Bonilla said. "If
you ask sex workers what they dreamed of being when they were children, none of them will
say my ambition was to be a prostitute. No, they say, I wanted to be a teacher … a
nurse.
"No one dreams of being a prostitute."
Carlos noted that most of the women she talks with say they would like to have another
job. While she does not believe poverty is the primary reason women become prostitutes,
she did acknowledge that many of the women work in the entertainment industry in hopes of
finding a foreigner to marry. "They’re looking for a way out."
Yi said it was very disheartening seeing the women the one night he got out of Clark
Field to see Angeles City.
As was the policy for U.S. servicemembers leaving Clark, he was in a group of four. Yi
doesn’t normally frequent bars, he said, but the members of his group wanted to go
into one, so he had to accompany them.
"It was interesting to see the look on the girls’ faces," Yi recounted.
"You could tell some of the women’s self-confidence and self-worth was down.
They didn’t feel good about what they were doing."
Yi said he ended up talking to the head waitress and asked about the tags the girls
were wearing and what they signified. Then he looked for the bar girl who looked the
saddest and gave the head waitress money to give her so she didn’t have to
"work" that night.
"I told her she didn’t have to do anything for the money. She could just go
home that night. She started crying and I asked the waitress why she was crying and she
told me because she doesn’t have a prince to take care of her."
Greg Tyler contributed to this report.
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