A WORD FROM WOMEN WHO ARE VICTIMS OF TRAFFICKING AND PROSTITUTION

I am Alma Bulawan from the Philippines. I’m the president and Founder of Buklod Center.  Our organization is a member of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific since 1997. Our main goal is  to organize women who work in bars and clubs and to hold educational discussions on issues like violence against women, trafficking and prostitution, women’s human rights, militarism, etc.

I fully support the statement of Teresa Ulloa from Mexico.  I know what she means because I’m a survivor, I worked in the Bars for almost 4 years when the US Bases were in the Philippines.  I would like to highlight the need to include issues of violence against women, specifically trafficking and prostitution, in the discussion.  My experience and that of the numerous trafficked and sexually exploited women we are organizing is a statement against degrading poverty, racism, and gender inequality that causes the vulnerability of many of us.

Buklod Center was established in 1987 as a drop-in center for women in prostitution outside the former US Subic Bay Naval Base.  Our organization’s founding was a joint effort of a core of women from the bars and clubs and different women’s NGOs.  We were active in the campaign for the withdrawal of the US bases and the subsequent Visiting Forces Agreement which caused the increase of women in prostitution.  Buklod works to build and empower the community of prostituted women and their children.

I am a survivor.  I worked in the bars for almost 4 years when the US bases were in the Philippines.  In the bars and clubs we were required to give services to customers 7 days a week, from 5 pm to 2 am without a salary.  If I didn’t work, I had to pay a fine in the bars and clubs,  Otherwise the fine would be charged against my commission from the drinks and “bar fine” from customers.  In the end, I contracted venereal disease.  I also gave birth to an Amerasian child.

Like me, most of the women prostituted in Olongapo came from other places in the Philippines, from the poorest regions of the country.  At least 50% of the women we organize have experienced sexual abuse before entry into prostitution.  In our own experience talking to the women in the bars and clubs, women share similar experiences: they suffer from physical and sexual abuse from their customers, managers, policemen and sometimes their live-in partners, who often are previous customers.

Many women start working in the bars at a young age of 14 or 15.  Many of them are very hopeless; whether leaving prostitution at age of 50 or staying in it at the age of 15, the women only see a bleak future. In their old age, they suffer from stigma, from diseases, from broken self-esteem, violence from perpetrators and profiteers in the sex industry, continuous violence from men and society, fears of contracting diseases, of lack of economic options, lack of programs for recovery and reintegration.

Our organization believes that prostitution is one form of violence against women that continues to threaten the security of women and girls as human beings.  Thus, we call on the UN to address trafficking and prostitution in the global and national levels, to address racism, economic inequality and male domination existing in societies and the world that breed this form that of violence against women.  For states to address male violence, punish those who gain in the sex industry decriminalize victims survivors of prostitution, create local jobs and provide services for survivor’s reintegration.

As expressed by survivors in India, Bangladesh, Japan, Korea and other parts of Asia, our collective hope is FREEDOM FROM FEAR, FREEDOM FROM VIOLENCE, and FREEDOM FROM PROSTITUTION!