A researcher into the commercial sexual exploitation of children claimed that some members of the Philippine National Police were coercing arrested child sex workers into giving free sexual favors.
In her recent study, Psychosocial Support and Children’s Rights Resource Center (PSTCRRC) commissioned by Plan International, researcher Sucelle Czarina Deacosta said that police officers in Manila who do “hulidap” (arrest and extortion) operations threatened young sex workers with arrest if they refused sexual intercourse.
Aside from Deacosta, the study entitled “Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescent in Metro Manila” was conducted by other researchers like project leader Elizabeth Protacio – De Castro, Ph.D., Dinah Palmera Nadera, M.D., Marie Therese Galang, M.D. and Agnes Zenaida Camacho.
“For example, one of the key informant interviewees [KII] that we talked to, a former CSEC [commercial sexual exploitation of children] [victim], who became a pimp, said [hulidap] is something that they protect themselves from,” Deacosta said.
Deacosta said the reality of “hulidap” surfaced when the pimp they interviewed, who does mostly online transactions, used the word “hulidap” when talking about common concerns in CSEC.
“As the police know the small hotels, for example Sogo, that the girls frequent, they threaten to arrest them unless they agree to have sex,” the researcher explained in a report posted on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website.
She said the majority of the 32 children, teens involved in the sex industry in the metro, a pimp, a poseur customer, and service providers, have mentioned and described the practice of “hulidap” very consistently.
“What we have are responses of the participants only so whether if it’s that institutionalized or not we cannot say. We take the responses of the participants at face value,” Deacosta said.
“From their perspective it’s something that they actually worry about. We don’t really know,” she added.
The study said majority of the individuals they interviewed were minors and confessed that they were forced to give free sexual favors to law enforcers to avoid being detained.
She also said that sometimes “hulidap” takes the form of verbal harassment or seemingly innocent allusions to the big pay the CSEC victims get, implying that the police should get a cut somehow.
“[Sometimes,] it happens aboard roving mobiles. Sometimes, it’s subtle, [the police will say], ‘So, are we earning well?’” Deacosta said.
Another female pimp also claimed that they have many PNP customers.
“There are times she said of an instance of intimidation by a police customer by bringing gun and handcuffs during a transaction,” she said.
The PSTCRRC paper, which was presented during a stakeholders’ meeting on June 3 at at the Sequioa Hotel, Quezon City, aimed to update the facts and figures about CSEC in the Philippines.