Just last week, anti-human trafficking authorities stopped four men from joining their 250 other companions for a 10-month fishing expedition in Palawan on board a big fishing boat.
The men, whose identities were not disclosed, were prevented from leaving due to alleged tampered documents, like birth certificates.
One must be so desperate so as to fake some credentials just to be able to go on a dangerous 10-month trip that may not even pay them minimum wage, but that is the sad reality in Negros Oriental.
Negros Oriental continues to be on the map of the provinces from where human traffickers get their prey.
Human trafficking is the trade of people, most commonly for forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation, or other inhuman purposes. They can be as simple as recruiting people on the pretext of a job as house helpers, but these recruits soon realize they are made to work in brothels or in some factory that does not give them adequate pay, living quarters, or food.
Some $31.6 billion is believed to circulate in the world of human traffickers. This definitely is a big, dark world.
We are lucky and thankful that there are groups dedicated to putting a stop to human trafficking in Negros Oriental. These are groups like the Department of Social Welfare & Development, the Department of Justice, the Visayan Forum, the Philippine National Police, and other agencies.
Despite all their efforts, however, the problem keeps getting bigger. One cause for the proliferation of trafficking is because many parents play a big role in condoning this practice.
Most times, it is the parents who present fake birth records just to pass off their children as being of legal age, so he or she could start sending money back home.
Desperate times call for desperate solutions, it is said. But we do not have to go to the point of selling our bodies just to earn a living. This continues to be a challenge to local governments, employers, and to us all.
What can we do to help stop this problem?
