Guest Speaker – Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, Visayan Forum
The local chapter of a worldwide service organization of executives in business and the professions aimed at advancing the status of women worldwide will host a forum on the global epidemic of human trafficking.
Young women victims of human trafficking with Visayas Forum Foundation Founder Maria Cecilia Flores Oebanda & Atty. Gwen Pimentel Gana chat with Sen. Loren Legarda (PIA-7)
Zonta Club of Cagayan de Oro II hosts a forum on Human Trafficking: A Global Epidemic on 05 December 2015 at a local restaurant. Guest speaker will be Maria Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, founding president and executive director of Manila-based Visayan Forum, which has battled human trafficking, forced labor and other forms of modern day slavery since 1991.
Ms. Flores-Oebanda is the Founder and President of the Visayan Forum Foundation, a national NGO in the Philippines that promotes the rights and development of marginalized migrants, especially those in the invisible and informal sectors, like domestic workers and trafficked women and children.
Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, founding president and executive director of Manila-based Visayan Forum, has battled human trafficking, forced labour and other forms of modern day slavery since 1991. (photo courtesy of CNN)
She has spent most of her life as a freedom fighter and worked with the urban poor, peasants, women, youth and children. Because of her work, she became a political prisoner for four years under the Marcos dictatorship. She was released from detention as a result of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.
Immediately after her release, she set up the Visayan Forum Foundation. She is the convener of the Multi-Sectoral Network against Trafficking in Persons, a national alliance of civil society, government and private groups that works for the prevention, protection and reintegration of victims, and prosecution of offenders of human trafficking in the Philippines.
During an interview with HumanTrafficking.org Ms. Flores-Oebanda identified some of the root causes of human trafficking in the Philippines:
“Victims are pushed by poverty, unemployment, lack of educational alternatives, peer influence, social expectations and armed conflict, and the mere inability of young people to continue their studies. Many believe in making family sacrifices.”
“In the Philippines, the phenomenon of trafficking in women and children has two faces: serving both the overseas job markets as well as the local market. A network of headhunters which scouts for recruits in poor communities earns as much as $10 to $20 per head, putting recruits in a position of indebtedness to recruiters who harbor them.”
“Before reaching Manila and other exit airports, recruiters have to identify, screen, and transport potential victims from poor provinces. Traffickers clandestinely organize their transport operations through different ports and land routes across the country. As it happens inside the country, it is part and parcel of the international dynamics of trafficking, and solutions must be combined addressing these two dimensions.”
The Philippines is considered among the leading sources of migrant workers all over the world. As of December 2003, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration reported some 7.76 million Filipinos are working abroad. It is part of the Government Philippine Medium Term Development Plan. This policy has another side of coin: thousands of Filipinos fall into trafficking for exploitative situations, she added.
“Trafficking is also still remains rampant within borders. Inside the Philippines, there is trafficking from rural to urban metropolitan areas. Even overseas recruiters rely on intricate processes that start from far-flung communities,” she noted.
Ms. Flores-Oebanda is also the Philippine and Southeast Asia Coordinator for the Global March Against Child Labor, a worldwide movement on behalf of 250 million working children, 4 million of whom are Filipino. She is also the current chairperson of Child Workers in Asia, a Bangkok-based network of about 100 NGOs working on the issue of child labor in Asia. A recipient of the 2005 Anti-Slavery Award by Anti-Slavery International—the world’s oldest human rights organization—she was recognized by the government of the United Kingdom as a “Modern-Day Abolitionist” in the 2007 celebration of the bicentenary of the abolition of the Slave Trade Act.
“The Philippines has made notable progress in the campaign against trafficking in persons, being one of the first countries in Asia to pass a definitive law against trafficking, Republic Act 9208 (Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003). The law imposes stiff penalties for traffickers and mandates the provision of direct services to trafficking victims.
The challenge for the government is on how to make this law effective and how to fast track the resolutions of cases filed in court. Second is how to address the root causes of the problem.
“Aware of the archipelagic nature of the Philippines and that internal trafficking is rampant in many of these transit points, Visayan Forum combats trafficking it transit points, such as shipping ports and airports strategically located across the country. This is a crucial stage when traffickers become highly visible, along with their recruited victims. Within these ports, the VF operates unique facilities called halfway houses.”
“Inside these halfway houses, a team of multi-disciplinary staff provide integrative services to protect and heal victims. Such services includes temporary shelter, counseling, legal assistance, skills training, and referral for aftercare services.”
Visayan Forum offers temporary shelter, healing and repatriation services to women and children. These port halfway houses are also the nerve centers for information and advocacy inside the ports.
Zonta Club of Cagayan de Oro II is part of Area 3, District 17 which covers six countries in Asia. It was chartered in June 1996 as the baby club of Zonta Club of Cagyaan de Oro 1. Personifying Zonta as a dynamic organization, the Club continues to re-invent itself to keep up with the challenges of today’s community, updating and sustaining its various advocacies and service projects, aligning them with the goals of the District and the International organization.
Zonta Club of Cagayan de Oro II officers for the Biennium 2014-2016 include Lindy Patriana, president; Ma. Teresa Celdran, vice president; Ana de la Fuente, secretary; Maris M. Hao, treasurer; Dulce Reyes, asst. treasurer; and Eloisa Pedrajas, Delsa Mortola, Sol Ucab, Melissa Diawatan, Marinela Velez and Esperanza Dacudao, directors.
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