ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 28 February) — In some stories, they make it across and no one hears from them again. In others, girls — between 13 and 23 — are intercepted and rescued before they even reach the water.
In the best of cases, the girls don’t end up home to their families, not yet. At least until it’s safe. Ideally, the families reunite, but in a lot of cases, it’s complicated for those who fall victim to trafficking in persons (TIP).
In one story, it is the mother who sends her underage child to work to pay off the family’s debts. It will be all right, they are told; work means restaurant tasks.
But that is not true. The promised restaurant work was a cover for abuse.
In another story, a stepfather’s violence forces her to work for someone in a land far, far away. She runs away, and she can’t come home.
In another instance, a girl, as young as 13 years old, has her birth certificate forged to make her appear 18. She was told there was work in places across the sea, menial work that paid higher than the measly amount her family earns every month.
Social workers interviewed by MindaNews said falsified documents are common in recruitment cases, though verification can be difficult.
In these stories, the girls are too young for a prince charming, and when there is someone, it is far from happy ever after.
In some stories, it’s the mother; in another, it’s a stepbrother who has contacts that help facilitate the crime.
At times, it’s strangers; and there are moments when no one is even doing any touching. Some of the girls are victimized at home, or in a cubicle with a video camera, and the worst happens faster than they can zone out.
There are no castles or fairies or stardust.
Just rooms, different rooms, strangers good and bad, countries in between, the sea and uncertainty. The safest space is a shared bunk with fluffy pillows and blankets.
Once upon a time, the girls found themselves in two clandestine locations in Zamboanga City, these homes 15 kilometers apart. These locations are secret because most of the characters of this story are in hiding. The space is a fortress, one has high walls, and not even the neighbors know what the facility is for.
“We tell them it’s a boarding house, and we have scholars living here,” Social worker Sheena Laput, who is director at one of the shelters, said.
In these locations are around 20 girls, mostly underage, locked inside a compound with tall gates in Zamboanga City.
The girls have no phones like other girls their age, no social media account to speak of, no books, a shared laptop if they do need to go online, but only under watchful eyes.
All things considered, this is the safest they have ever been.
These are the girls rescued by KKI, a non-government, non-stock and non-profit organization that helps poor and marginalized communities. In English, the words mean ‘community for progress,’ and one of the ways is to make sure girls who find themselves in these situations slowly reintegrate into society.
One of the organization’s goals is to reach out to victims and survivors of TIP.
One shelter handles cases of victims and survivors of TIP; the other shelter deals directly with children in street situations.
The shelters serve rescued girls around the Zamboanga peninsula.
In trafficking, there is cruelty
Joanna Chiong, executive director at Katilingban sa Kalambuan Org., Inc. (KKI), told MindaNews that there was massive hiring in Zamboanga City during the siege. in 2013.
Lack of income compelled many women, the underage included, to accept offers from strangers hopping across evacuation centers.
The traffickers looked for victims from the evacuees at the Zamboanga City Grandstand and other transitory sites. “Usually they offered salaries as high as P20,000,” she said.
Laput says the 23 girls under her care, mostly from Zamboanga Peninsula, are receiving some structured learning under the organization’s rehabilitation program.
It isn’t always smooth sailing. Sometimes the girls fight and this happens especially in situations where the girls are far from their families.
But the social workers and the staff there, are not allowed to scream or use violence.
In an interview, designated house parent Susana ‘Anna’ Gallentes says she treats the girls here the way she treats her own children: Not with tension but with a firm yet nurturing presence.
This way, the girls know they can approach her any time when conflicts are defuse.
She can ask “Bakit ka galit? (Why are you angry?)” And then they respond: “Mainit lang ang ulo ko (I was just frustrated) There could have been stabbing involved, as one could have reached out for the kitchen knife, but the tension is eased.
Anna told MindaNews they can’t force the children they shelter to speak up. “Hindi mo pwedeng pilitin — sila ang kusang magsasalita pag ready na,” Anna says.
The NGO provides its residents with regular psychological interventions. Here, a mental health worker helps address all the stress and trauma, or at the least, a listening ear free from any judgment.
But there are limits to what they’re capable of doing, Laput said.
In one instance where a group of trafficked girls were rescued from sex work abroad, the girls were referred to the shelter. Their rehabilitation was on track, except that the organization noticed behavioral challenges. This happens, she said, when people are too far away from their family.
The children were referred instead to another shelter in Tukuran, Zamboanga del Sur, where the girls could be nearer their families while getting the support they needed.
Mindanao’s southernmost seaways, comprising historical and traditional barter routes, have been used for centuries as backdoors to and from neighboring Southeast Asian countries. The seaways carry more than trade.
This makes it ripe for individuals from the Philippines looking for work. Social workers say there are trafficked individuals coming from as far as Luzon, leaving the country by way of these porous seaways.
Human Rights Watch, a civil rights organization, said a significant number of the Sabah population are Filipinos. The International Organization for Migration, for its part, said children are most vulnerable when they become trafficked, especially when these are arranged informally.
Facing poverty or disrupted livelihoods, some would-be workers see Sabah as a potential source of income, but recruiters often misrepresent the work, according to an Asian Development Bank study in 2022. Labor experts likewise note that minors can be diverted into exploitative labor once they cross the border.
Whether it’s for trade or just convenience, the interlinked maritime channels of Zamboanga, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, and nearby Malaysia have provided a centuries-long porousness along these shores.
The notable passages include the Sibutu Passage, the Siasi Channel, and various other waterways that link up the southernmost portions of the Philippines to its nearby neighbors.
The hidden corridors aren’t necessarily formal ports or landing grounds.
In places like Bongao, Tawi-Tawi and Zamboanga City, the word ‘backdoor’ means the exact same thing: An escape. Whether for work or other reasons. It’s also a traditional route. Sabah, being once part of the Sultanate of Sulu, has historically been a destination among the ports across these parts of Mindanao.
There is a way to get across towards Malaysia or other nearby countries, with the methods directly proportional to expense. The danger varies. Everyone knows what this entails, and that this is barely legal.
In Tawi-Tawi, people told MindaNews a couple of high-profile names, unverifiable information about some escapes that passed through the areas. One supposedly escaped through Simandagit in Bongao, the other through Taganak.
For the desperate, the backdoor is a way to earn a living, regardless of what happens along the way.
A man in his 30s who drives the vehicle locally called a Piaggio in Zamboanga City, tells MindaNews he spent years in Sandakan by way of Zamboanga City, through a ship that regularly ferries people across the BARMM through these maritime routes. He said his handler made access into Malaysia easy.
Throughout the years, he had to pay off his debt from the crossing. Along the way, he found himself addicted to drugs, and decided he had had enough of the distance and hardship.
Amid the complicated possibilities, one could get a job illegally in places like Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand, by way of Zamboanga City, through Taganak in Tawi-Tawi, an hour or two from river mouth landings in Sandakan in Sabah, Malaysia, among other places.
Not just human trafficking
At the shelter, these minors almost found themselves in this mess of trans-national trafficking.
According to Laput, the girls here are victims not only of human trafficking, but also of child labor, sexual exploitation, online sexual abuse or exploitation of children.
The at-risk girls are rescued, thank God, before they even leave port.
But who knows how many others end up being trafficked around the world. “We even had a case where she was headed to Jordan,” Chiong said. In even worse cases, the girls don’t know where they are headed.
“Itong mga victims and survivors, hindi lang nag fo-focus dahil gusto lang nilang mag trabaho. But if you will dive into their stories, malalaman niyo po kung bakit po sila nadala sa ganung situations,” Laput said.
Unfortunately, some end up getting exploited.
In one of the cases she handled, a group of minors referred from outside Zamboanga were forced into sex work.
“Akala nila waitress—pero sa bar, napunta sa pag-entertain ng customers, nauwi sa sexual exploitation,” Laput said.
The teens were eventually rescued and eventually brought to the shelter some years back.
Chiong and Laput also say the girls could have ended up trafficked because their families were themselves trapped in a scheme called debt bondage. Here, family members are trapped in debt. Themselves unable to work, these parents offer their children to “facilitators” initially promising decent jobs.
As if it could get any worse, the “salary” ends up as payment for the debt. The cycle continues, and in the worst cases, everyone is trapped forever.
Complicated
Sometimes reunification is complicated. It is psychologically difficult when the child knows the caregiver is the perpetrator.
Chiong said they have seen too many cases like this.
In some instances, the perpetrators are well-known to social workers. They have not been brought to justice despite NGOs being aware of who they are and what they do exactly.
“Some are already prosecuted, while others walk free,” Chiong said. “We know who they are, that’s why we never inform anyone about our location.”
The stories are so heavy the staff absorb the secondary trauma.
“Kahit kami, napapaiyak,” she said.
But social workers are not allowed to show emotion. In their practice, trauma-informed training helps manage the vicarious trauma that comes with dealing with patients such as teenage TIPs.
“Some of us deal with it our way,” she said. In some cases, the processing comes after. Some stress eat.
In this digital age, the crime transcends borders.
Some of the victims under their care were rescued from being trafficked online.
Online sexual abuse
Online sexual abuse and exploitation (OSAEC) is another risk.
Republic Act No. 11930, or the “Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials (CSAEM) Act penalizes various violations and abuse.
Online sexual abuse or exploitation of children (OSAEC) refers to the use of information and communications technology (ICT) to sexually abuse and/or exploit a child, including cases where offline abuse/exploitation is combined with an online component.
It can include (but isn’t limited to) the production, dissemination, or possession of child sexual abuse/exploitation material (CSAEM/CSAM); online grooming; sexual extortion; sharing image-based sexual abuse; online prostitution/commercial sexual exploitation; and live-streaming of sexual abuse—whether or not the child “consented.”
OSAEC thrives in the digital spaces that allow for anonymity.
“Sa online, may messages—tapos pinapadala yung larawang ‘hindi dapat ipinapadala’… minsan ine-edit pa at binebenta sa labas,” Chiong says.
The children who find themselves hanging out in these apps are lured into these crimes: An intimate photo at first, eventually videos. They receive compensation; and the children see more money the more they reveal their bodies to these faceless strangers.
Children are coerced into sending images, which are sometimes edited and sold internationally. Traffickers include parents, foreigners, or local intermediaries.
For Zamboanga City Prosecutor Fiscal Wendell Sotto, the process of bringing justice to victims of human trafficking is filled with complication.
Like many legal cases, the process is disrupted by many factors.
Navigating the legal system has many challenges. Sotto said cases are often recommended for prosecution only with certainty of conviction.
“We will only file cases if there is a certainty of conviction. Meaning, the evidence during preliminary investigation or inquest, We must see to it that the evidence would suffice the 100% conviction. Otherwise, we will recommend the dismissal and for the law enforcement to build up more,” Sotto told MindaNews.
With the prosecutorial process excruciatingly long, some victims and families fail to appear at trial, and in the worst case, give up altogether. The cases are derailed, and so this adds another layer to the trauma.
“Even if we recommend the filing based on the evidence presented, we are certain for conviction. But the problem is during trial, there are witnesses who don’t appear, especially those victims of illegal recruitment,” Sotto said.
During the time that they were rescued, they were willing to file cases.
“They would execute complaints and affidavits,” he said. “But during trial, they don’t think about it. That’s the challenge for us.”
Across the sea, some local government units see human trafficking as almost inevitable. At times, the apprehended are called willing victims.
Mayor Jasper Que of Bongao in Tawi-Tawi told MindaNews there were nuances to the situation.
In places like Bongao and Zamboanga City, the terms human trafficking and backdoor are common knowledge. Backdoor is a route, while human trafficking is a common issue that could mean one of many things.
“But remove the term ‘human trafficking,’ it’s normal for the predominantly Muslim Bongao residents). Because everything is nearer,” Que said, adding, “Why would you work in Zamboanga if you could reach Sabah by boat?”
The travel time from Zamboanga to Taganak is long, in unpredictable and sometimes treacherous seas. From Zamboanga to Bongao, it usually takes around 16 to 18 hours by boat. From Bongao, it takes around 13 hours by Navy ship to Taganak. The Bongao to Taganak trip is much longer by motor launch, around 24 hours.
From Taganak, it takes an hour or two by speedboat.
“If you go to Malaysia, it’s a Muslim country, the food is halal, the wages are high, you get there in hours, and you are used to the sea. You are not afraid. And if you have a community there, it’s easier to adjust,” he explained.
Malaysia’s Department of Statistics (DOSM) 2021 data shows that the nearby Sabah island has one of the largest non-citizen populations in the country with
around 995,400, more than a quarter of Sabah’s population. Around 250,000 of these are children 0 to 19.
But Malaysia has a strict immigration policy and the Philippines is obligated to repatriate their citizens in case immigration in Malaysia apprehends any migrant worker.
In 2025, MindaNews reported on scores of rescued victims and a handful of apprehended and prosecuted alleged traffickers in operations before the vessels could leave port.
In August, for example, three suspected recruiters were apprehended in Barangay Baliwasan, Zamboanga, after attempting to traffic 38 individuals, including four minors, who were promised work in countries like Malaysia and China.
They were arrested during an inter-agency operation according to the Zamboanga Sea-Based Anti-Trafficking Task Force (ZSBATTF).
In September, 24 were rescued before they could leave a port in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, through a vessel supposedly en route to Cambodia and Malaysia.
The rescue was carried out by the Western Mindanao Naval Command (WMNC), in coordination with the Zamboanga Sea-Based Anti-Trafficking Task Force and other law enforcement agencies.
Another 14 were intercepted at the Sanga-Sanga Airport in Tawi-Tawi.
This operation was also conducted by the WMNC through inter-agency coordination involving military, police, and the Philippine Coast Guard. Some of the victims had traveled from as far as Manila.
In October, two operations rescued six victims in Tawi-Tawi and another six victims in Zamboanga City. The Tawi-Tawi rescue was conducted by the WMNC through Joint Task Force Poseidon. The suspect in the case remains at large.
Many of the forced returnees include women and children separated from their families throughout the ordeal.
The World Migration Report in 2022 said children who were forced to endure the irregular sea routes face “heightened risks of traveling, exploitation, and abuses, particularly where borders are porous and documentation is weak.”
Que says it’s difficult to convince his residents to refuse job offers from dubious recruiters.
But Chiong disagrees, her years of experience behind her.
“They’re not willing victims but victims of circumstances,” Chiong said.
At the shelters in Zamboanga, the teens have found a certain hope from the safety offered by the organization.
As they await the case building and prosecution of their individual involvement in trafficking, the teens learn reading, writing, and arithmetic skills they learn outside of school.
If the students do well, the organization sponsors them for a scholarship in formal education. But even this process is thorough. In the cases where the potential scholar lives outside the shelters, with their families, the NGO decides whether home is conducive for learning. If it’s not, the shelters take them in.
Two rescues from previous cases have become KKI’s success stories.
Originally bound for Sabah as TIP teens, KKI guided the two to formal schooling. After graduation, KKI has since hired them as admin staff.
The social workers at KKI make sure that the girls are taken care of, starting their daily lives, up to preparing them for case buildups and reconciliation and rehabilitation, and eventually the girls are referred to either their families or to a better life outside when all is done.
The girls will eventually leave the shelter, now better equipped and empowered.
The staff calls it “graduation,” that day when finally, the girls leave the shelter fully equipped and much stronger than they entered. Until then, each moment of their life is planned to the minute: Chores, meals, counseling, cleanups.
The girls’ support extends even to protecting them against any external contact. Before allowing an interview, KKI made sure that MindaNews signed a detailed child protection policy document to speak to staff.
The children are off limits as they have been through too many traumas, and staff could speak adequately on their behalf.
At the shelter where Anna is, the girls follow a routine. But it’s a holiday, and there’s a lot of time. The night before, Anna hosted a meeting to assign tasks. It’s laundry day, and each of the shelter’s residents keep to their own washload.
They’ll do all of this between cleaning up, tidying up, making sure all tasks are done, and going through the usual pressures of puberty at least under guidance and better company.
At 1 pm, the shelter’s residents will meet for tasks again. They are scheduled to do their laundry in the afternoon, when it’s less sunny.
The teens are excited for tomorrow: It’s movie day, they can rest and watch television, so this acts as incentive.
The decision, for once, doesn’t feel like survival: It’s movie day, and the choice is simple–what movie to watch. (Yes D. Ocampo with reports from Frencie Carreon / MindaNews)
(The production of this story was funded under a fellowship grant from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).)
