US embassy cable - 05MANILA3500

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MANILA 003500 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
DEPT FOR EAP/PMBS, G/TIP, EAP/RSP, INL, DRL/IL, DRL/CRA 
DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS USAID FOR ANE/TS - SAULS 
LABOR FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KWMN, ELAB, KCRM, ECON, RP 
SUBJECT: TIP Update; Latest on Prosecutions; Municipalities 
agree to fight trafficking 
 
REF: A. MANILA 3011 
 
B. MANILA 2757 
C. MANILA 1618 
D. MANILA O971 
 
1. (U) This message is Sensitive But Unclassified - 
Please handle accordingly. 
 
2. (SBU) SUMMARY:  The International Justice Mission (IJM) 
reports that it continues to press forward with 15 
Trafficking in Persons (TIP)-related prosecutions.  We have 
asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to confirm the total 
number of prosecutions ongoing nationally and it says it is 
gathering the information.  The DoJ informs us that 10 
prosecutors newly designated to help in the TIP arena are 
currently working on preliminary investigations of TIP 
cases, but not on a full-time basis.   An important 
association of Philippine municipalities recently signed a 
first-of-its-kind anti-TIP agreement with a key NGO and a 
large shipping company.  The GRP -- aided by IJM -- 
continues to try to record its first conviction using its 
anti-TIP law, but such a result remains elusive.  End 
Summary. 
 
News re Prosecutions 
---========---====== 
 
3.  (U) The Philippine office of the NGO IJM and the GRP's 
Department of Justice (DoJ) continue to pursue trafficking- 
related cases under the terms of the 2003 Anti-Trafficking 
Law (R.A. 9208) and other statutes.  IJM reports that, as 
of July 27, it is working on nine cases under R.A. 9208, 
plus another six cases under other statutes, such as the 
Anti-Illegal Recruitment Act -- a figure unchanged since 
Mission's last report on this matter on June 30 (ref a). 
Mission has requested statistics from the DoJ on TIP 
prosecutions on a nation-wide basis for the first half of 
2005 (the IJM figures are only part of the total).  The DoJ 
says it is compiling the information and promised to 
provide it to us as soon as it becomes available. 
 
4.  (SBU) In terms of specific cases, IJM reports that it 
is making headway in a case it filed on June 2 in Manila 
against police officer Dennis Reci, the first public 
official charged under the anti-TIP law (ref a).  The 
Manila Regional Trial Court has set an arraignment date for 
Reci for October 10.  IJM has filed a motion for the 
issuance of a warrant of arrest for a second suspect in the 
case, a person known as "Mommy Angel."  On July 6, the 
Department of Labor and Employment issued an order to close 
thc club, which Reci owned, and where he and others 
allegedly coerced minors into sexual slavery.  In the 
meantime, a well-known case the DoJ has been pursuing 
against suspected trafficker Alice Tongco -- which IJM 
expected to be concluded by mid-2005 -- has been delayed. 
The judge hearing the case has been on recess for over two 
months and prosecutors do not expect the trial to resume 
until mid-August.  Lilian Doris Alejo, the DoJ prosecutor 
for the case, recently told us that key witnesses for the 
prosecution have recanted their testimony and will likely 
be called to testify for the defense, making a verdict 
against the defendant increasingly unlikely.  The DoJ and 
IJM had hoped that this case would be the first in which a 
defendant was convicted under R.A. 9208 (ref c). 
 
DoJ on Prosecutors 
===========----=== 
5.  (U) On June 24, per ref a, the DoJ assigned 10 new 
prosecutors to handle TIP cases.  These prosecutors were 
slated to join the initial four prosecutors that the GRP's 
Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) assigned 
to TIP cases in late 2O04 
.   According to the DoJ, the 10 
newly-named TIP prosecutors are already handling 
preliminary invcstigations into a handful of TIP cases 
nationwide.  For cases filed within Metro Manila, the new 
prosecutors will push forward from investigation to trial. 
For cases filed outsidc of Metro Manila, the new 
prosecutors will conduct preliminary investigations then, 
if there is evidence of a crime, turn over the case to a 
local prosecutor to pursue through trial.  Mission 
continues to hear that DoJ is also tasking all 14 
prosecutors with non-TIP related cases, in addition to 
their anti-trafficking duties.  Thus, none of them are 
totally dedicated to TIP cases. 
 
6.  (U) The DoJ will hold a TIP prosecutors' conference 
(supported by USAID's Rule of Law Effectiveness Project) in 
Manila on August 3.  Mission will send a representative to 
the conference in order to learn more about the GRP's anti- 
TIP prosecutorial efforts. 
 
Anti-TIP Agreement 
==--=====--====--= 
 
7.  (U) In other news, the League of Municipalities of the 
Philippines, a key national forum for local bodies, signed 
a first-of-its-kind anti-TIP Memorandum of Agreement on 
July 21 with the Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF), an anti- 
TIP NGO, and Aboitiz Transport System Corporation, one of 
the country's largest shipping companies.  The agreement 
paves the way for municipalities to work in the following 
directions, with the technical support of VFF and Aboitiz: 
 
-- towards the creation of local inter-agency councils and 
local task forces against trafficking; 
 
-- towards the enactment of local legislation to prevent 
and suppress TIP; 
 
-- towards the provision of basic services for the 
prevention, protection and support to victims of 
trafficking and their families; and, 
-- towards information dissemination on TIP at the 
community level and promotion of best practices against 
TIP. 
 
(Note:  The participation of a major shipping company in 
this agreement is potentially significant because a large 
proportion of Philippine TIP victims are trafficked 
internally via inter-island passenger ferries, primarily 
from impoverished areas in the Visayas and Mindanao to 
Metro Manila and elsewhere.  End Note.) 
 
Comment 
======= 
 
8.  (SBU) As reviewed above, the GRP -- aided by IJM -- 
continues to try to achieve its first conviction under the 
terms of the anti-TIP law.  Such a result remains elusive, 
however.  The new prosecutors designated by the DoJ will 
hopefully make progress on TIP cases.  In large part, 
however, the problem remains with the Philippine judiciary, 
which is notoriously slow and ineffective.  The prevalence 
of non-contiguous trials, for example, delays cases and 
allows defendants and their associates to place pressure on 
witnesses, as seems to have happened in the Tongco case 
reviewed above.  The news of the agreement among 
municipalities, VFF and Aboitiz is very positive, and 
should assist in TIP prevention, and victim identification 
and support. 
 
MUSSOMELI