Child sexual abuse: crime on the internet

WHAT COULD be more shameful to the human race, to any nation, every community or family that vulnerable, helpless children can be sexually exploited, abused, sold and raped with impunity? That shame is what the world is still trying to hide, deny and ignore but others try to cope with the horrible truth and expose it. It’s a challenge to all to accept that this heinous crime is a common event, a secret crime, in families, on the street in brothels and hotels where hundreds of thousands of acts of child sexual abuse and violence is happening every minute, every hour, every day, in every country.

No nation or community can say it does not happen. In a group of children as young as six to 16, in every three or four, one will have suffered an act of sexual abuse. Many have been sexually abused many times by parents, relatives, live-in partners of their mothers, neighbors and friends and sex tourists. Many sexually abuse their children online in live sex shows over the internet, allowed and enabled by the Internet Service Providers ( ISPs), all for filthy money and enabling the sexual gratification of foreign pedophiles.

An abhorrent business so prevalent that the Philippines is the hub of this evil trade. The executives and employees of PLDT, Globe and Dito allow the passage of child sexual materials apparently without a qualm of conscience, through their servers. They refuse to install blocking software despite the antichild pornography law of 2009 also known as Republic Act (RA) 9775 telling them to do so.

According to the charity Liberate Children, it is estimated that 10 million children are trafficked for sexual exploitation around the world today and they have an average age of 12 to 14 years old. The abuse of the Internet enables and allows this.

The victims of domestic sexual abuse can be estimated also in millions. No one knows how many since the crimes are committed in secret and children are threatened not to talk or report abuse. It is only years later they find the chance and opportunity to reveal what they endured. The #MeToo movement is helping a lot. Social workers in the Preda Foundation have rescued and healed victims as young as three and six years of age. There are 52 girls recovering from sexual assault at present.

We help them heal and recover and to file their legal complaint against their abusers. The brave courageous children testify strongly after having Emotional Release Therapy. They win an average of 16 convictions every year. As many as 35 court cases are on-going; others are archived as the cowardly abusers are in hiding. Bringing the abusers to justice is closure and victory for the children.

The child victims/survivors are mostly victims of domestic sexual abuse or on-line sexual exploitation and become street children to escape the abuse and are then recruited by human traffickers and pimps. The Philippines is the hub of this heinous on-line crime against children. The moral corruption in government and society that tolerates and allows this began in towns and cities around the US Naval Base in Subic Bay and Clark Airforce Base in Pampanga.

I discovered the cover up by authorities of a syndicate selling children as young as nine years old to US sailors in 1982 and exposed in the media and was denounced and threatened for doing so. I then called and campaigned with others for the closure and conversion of the US bases to economic industrial parks. It succeeded and the bases finally closed in1992 and the sex industry collapsed.

Yet, we have recently discovered sex trafficking in the posh hotels of the Subic Bay Free Port (SBMA) and hoping the new chairman and administrator, Rolen Paulino, will work with us to stop it once and for all.

However, protest against child abuse and trafficking worldwide began and grew. This culminated in the passing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations in 1989. I was a delegate to the drafting committee in Helsinki, Finland. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was established and the protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography ( OPSC) was established in 2002. The Philippine child protection law, also known as RA 7610, was passed in 1992. Finally, the world and the Philippines was awaking to the extent of child abuse and human trafficking.

Only t his past month, t he Philippines raised the age of sexual consent from a low of 12 years-ofage to 16. Everyone knew a child of 12 can’t give consent to a sexual act but the pedophile-minded politicians and the Church allowed it without protest since 1930. This column campaigned successfully for many years to change it. Now, sexual intercourse between an adult and a child below 16 years of age is classified as statutory rape with a life sentence.

Parents and relatives are the perpetrators of online sexual abuse of their own children for money that is paid through money transfer. It is one of the biggest global criminal activities with a turnover of US$ 99 billion in profits a year. Good people everywhere have to realize that child sexual abuse is a heinous crime and causes trauma, hurt and pain that it is a life-long psychological trauma and burden. It damages and scars the personality and character of the victims/survivor

*** So there’s the intelligent voter, and therefore intelligent vote.

Corollary, there’s the stupid voters, and therefore their stupid votes.

It’s not that you are stupid because your candidate is a liar and thief (although it will amount to this).

You are stupid because you did not study the candidates.

And you are stupider because you choose a liar and thief even if you know that they are liars and thieves. Stupidity is forever. Haha.

*** I believe in education. I believe in intellectual growth. I believe in enlightenment,

and in knowing the unknown.

I believe in people’s capacity to learn.

So I’m happy that there are people that I have convinced to change their opinions, and have won them over for my Pink candidates.

I’m happy for the last minute switches.

I’m happy for people joining the Pink campaign, even at the eleventh hour.

What is important is that ( most) people do not remain stupid.

*** But I also believe in just plain stupidity.

In the stubbornness of the stupids. In their refusal to learn. In their refusal to see the light; in their refusal to be in the light.

And therefore, in their choice to be in hell.

I pray for those people; I pray hard that they burn in hell!

*** I’ve burned so many bridges during this campaign period. And I’m glad I did. I am a happier person now. I’ve always been a happy person, but I’m happier now.

I feel I have broken ties with toxic people.

Imagine being friends all your life with people who are not as smart or as morally superior as you. It takes a toll.

*** And so, Rot, losers, rot! You are dead to me now. I have carried you for so long. I have done my share. Now, leave me happy, and peaceful./