Legarda Hails PHL’s Improved Rank in Trafficking Efforts, Says More to be Done

Senator Loren Legarda today said that greater effort is still needed to address human trafficking even as she hailed the Philippines’ upgrade in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report of 2016.

In the 2016 TIP Report, the Philippines upgraded from Tier 2 to Tier 1, which means that the government has acknowledged the existence of human trafficking, made efforts to address the problem, and complies with the minimum standards for the elimination of international human trafficking.

Legarda, principal sponsor of the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (R.A. 10364), said, “The promotion of Philippines to Tier 1 ranking is proof of the significant efforts being undertaken by the Philippine government to curb human trafficking and exploitation from and within the Philippines.”

“I hope that our promotion to Tier 1 status will not lull us into a false sense of complacency. We should continue our fight against human trafficking through public awareness campaigns, capacity building, and continuous coordination and collaboration with key stakeholders,” she added.

The Senator expressed confidence that the new administration will continue to strengthen anti-human trafficking efforts and champion the rights of many Filipino workers trapped in modern-day slavery.

Legarda also said that new measures have been enacted which will surely improve the Philippines’ anti-human trafficking efforts and combat modern forms of trafficking such as cyber trafficking.

These measures are the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Modernization Act, which Legarda co-authored, and the law creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), which she principally authored.