LIVE: Senate probe into sexual trafficking, POGOs, and the 'pastillas' bribery scheme

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality will conduct a hearing Tuesday on the rescues of sexual trafficking victims in the country.

Last year, Sen. Risa Hontiveros filed Senate Resolution 131 to investigate, in aid of legislation, the prostitution rings in the country and to examine the circumstances that push women to work under such exploitative conditions.

This, after six Vietnamese women were rescued in a Makati City condominium on September 6, 2019. Hontiveros said foreigners, mainly Chinese men working in nearby Philippine Offshore Gambling Operators (POGO), were the main clientele of the prostitution ring.

In August last year, four Chinese women believed to be human trafficking victims were rescued from a KTV bar in Cebu City.

“The objectification of women in the gambling industry as evidenced by the Filipinas in POGOs and the more serious problem of sexual slavery experienced by human trafficking victims here in the Philippines that coincidentally have POGO operators as clientele are problems that have underlying roots in the misogyny that have been normalized by a president who have delivered sexist remarks without care or remorse,” the resolution read.

Last month, the Senate women and children committee chaired by Hontiveros resumed its hearing on the “pastillas scheme” and the possible link of POGO to money laundering in the country.

In February, Hontiveros presented to media a Taiwanese woman who worked at a POGO firm. She said she had been threatened and abused and that her employers confiscated her passport.

Watch the hearing LIVE starting 10 a.m. on Tuesday, October 6, 2020.