DEEPER SCARS: The perils after a disaster
‘It all felt wrong. But they were very persistent in the guise they used was of a religious congregation, so we just went along.’ Lyn was teary eyed as she recounts their experience being transported from a small barangay in Samar a few months after Typhoon Haiyan swept through the region. It could’ve turned into an unhappy ending had the inter-agency task force assigned in the bus station in Tacloban been absent. She’s now back in their hometown reintegrated back to society and working her way out of 8th grade.
A recent report on Trafficking In Persons (TIP) from the U.S. State Department states that the Philippines is still on Tier 2 status for countries that do not fully not fully complying with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but making significant efforts to do so. As the global climate pattern face a new norm, of stronger storms and other impending disasters, the protection of people from being trafficked ending in the hands of the organise crime network.
In Cebu, a city thriving on tourism offering the country’s best scenery and off-the-beaten escapades, businesses are booming and new industries are flourishing in I.T. parks and tecnho hubs. The over 4 million tourist arrivals in Central Visayas pass through Cebu province mostly, and with the increased tourist arrivals the entertainment industry needs to cater to the demand. As any other city in the world, opportunity is deemed as present in Cebu attracting people from all over the Visayas provinces and even in some parts of Mindanao. Most migrants heads to the city for better opportunity, is sucked into a cycle of everyday survival and falling prey to petty crimes or to bigger modus in times of crises.
As I try and trace the path of people being trafficked in the Visayas, one of the things I kept in mind was the importance of the loop holes or maybe weaker points in the current system. Since I have no background on enforcement nor addressing issues of trafficking, I am banking on my experience as a visual reporter to try and create a visual map, a story with little words and offer the viewer a visual experience of how systematic human traffickers can be and how we, even as normal citizens can take a stand and be vigilant in combatting this heinous crime.
It was 1030pm in Cebu, along Mango road. I sit in one of the al fresco bars, people watching and looking out on how deals are done and bookings made. According to online forums, the Mango Square is but one of several places to meet up. The evening was quite packed even for a Thursday. Bass thumping from several dance clubs, karaoke blasting in the nearby kiosk and the smell of nicotine and cologne melts with the gentle humid breeze. I was wondering where I can find a willing subject to talk to. I failed as most wanted to get ‘hired’ or for some payment for their time. But before moving on, a few people whispered an even more darker arena hidden from plain sight, the cyberporn industry.
I made my way to the town of Cordova early the next day. It wasn’t too long ago that the town was in the spotlight for being a ‘host’ to several cyberporn operations even inside shanty houses. As I tried to manoeuvre my way in side streets, I got unwelcome stares so I decided to coordinate with locals instead. The officials were accommodating but obviously didn’t want to pursue nor exert much effort to assist me around the area. I left with no images but with a stronger sense of why the city (Cebu) is set as the main destination for both trafficked people and the customers. As I walked a few blocks before hopping onto a cab, there were restaurants, cafes and other commercial hubs with people enjoying themselves. I wonder, are they ever
The bustle of the city started to fade, the noise eases as its enveloped by the crashing of the waves and hum of the fast craft. Passing through the port station, I looked around on how porous this point is. I think it is important to strengthen exit/entry points in order to monitor the movements of traffickers. Also, as this is one of the choke points of tourists, a heightened information drive would go a long way. We docked in Ormoc port half past 8. sun was up and at the city was moving. A little different than her sister island from across the shore. Here I met, friend Aaron and Mila (not their real names) who were both working in the sugarcane fields. It is a way of life, for those who grew up in a generation of famers that they also need to help to till the land.
Most families moved from the inner districts hoping to find better paying jobs, only a few find success. Most would still be working in agricultural lands owned by the rich few. Even if their story is not as rich as the ones trafficked into cities, they sweat it out in the fields after school and during holidays in order to help the family’s earnings. It is a bit complicated and careless to approach the subject as to only lack of livelihood, but from what I have witnessed the best way to combat this cycle is to strengthen the educational system most specially in areas far from the cities.
Driving the route to ground zero was melancholic but not without hope. It was in this land that I had a rid awakening, along with other journalists who covered the height and recovery from Typhoon Haiyan. I still remember the moment I entered Tacloban almost a month after the destruction. The city and whoever was left was trying to get back on their feet. The survivors were little by little tidying up their homes and trying to create makeshift spaces for the coming cold nights. Underneath of it all, another emergency was at hand. Women and children specifically, are under threat from the opportunists as the city is still in limbo.
Pamela greeted me with a smile at a shelter in Tacloban. She agreed to tell her story and was highly recommended by the shelter directress as hers is one of this that fits the big screen. She was molested by her father twice before she decided that it was enough and ran away. Spending most of her time in the streets, she fell prey to an offer to urn extra in one of the hostels in the city. That one time ended up being held for over a month without pay and fed poorly. She was also taught how to use crack (shabu) in order to ‘ease the pain’. Pam woke up one day and felt that she was in grave danger if she kept on doing this, she figured out a way to escape her captors and to ask for help from local authorities. She was also pregnant, suspecting that her last partner (a korean who worked in one of the ships that docks in the nearby towns) was the father. This pushed her to take a new lease in life. She was barely in her teens, when this all happened. And the reality that women and children are housed in shelters all over the Visayas region everyday as human trafficking continues to happen.
‘I feel that I am better now. I am thankful for this shelter and the people who are running it for being persistent even if I wasn’t cooperative when I was new. I want to be able to heal the things that hurt me. I want to move on with my life, with my son.’ she muttered as her year-old son clings on to her leg while she unloads her school bag.
The damage that the monstrous winds and deadly surges brought by Typhoon Haiyan was the main perpetrator. But those who have taken advantage at the time of recovery are those who have criminal intentions. This is where strength is needed, this where we need to stand up and be more vigilant.
As I packed my bags and write some end notes, I remember what one priest in a shelter for displaced persons told me a few months back: “People who are displaced doesn’t need to be spoon fed. They should be taught dignity because when they are in a ‘poor’ state it is easy to say they just need to endure and beat the odds. How can they even think of the future if they are in such a miserable state? We need to heal them of their misery in order for them to live a normal life”.
Pamela was watering the plants as her son plays around the shelter compound. “These are the things I love.” She muttered as I bid farewell.
©V.Villafranca 2026
‘It all felt wrong. But they were very persistent in the guise they used was of a religious congregation, so we just went along.’ Lyn was teary eyed as she recounts their experience being transported from a small barangay in Samar a few months after Typhoon Haiyan swept through the region. It could’ve turned into an unhappy ending had the inter-agency task force assigned in the bus station in Tacloban been absent. She’s now back in their hometown reintegrated back to society and working her way out of 8th grade.
A recent report on Trafficking In Persons (TIP) from the U.S. State Department states that the Philippines is still on Tier 2 status for countries that do not fully not fully complying with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but making significant efforts to do so. As the global climate pattern face a new norm, of stronger storms and other impending disasters, the protection of people from being trafficked ending in the hands of the organise crime network.
In Cebu, a city thriving on tourism offering the country’s best scenery and off-the-beaten escapades, businesses are booming and new industries are flourishing in I.T. parks and tecnho hubs. The over 4 million tourist arrivals in Central Visayas pass through Cebu province mostly, and with the increased tourist arrivals the entertainment industry needs to cater to the demand. As any other city in the world, opportunity is deemed as present in Cebu attracting people from all over the Visayas provinces and even in some parts of Mindanao. Most migrants heads to the city for better opportunity, is sucked into a cycle of everyday survival and falling prey to petty crimes or to bigger modus in times of crises.
As I try and trace the path of people being trafficked in the Visayas, one of the things I kept in mind was the importance of the loop holes or maybe weaker points in the current system. Since I have no background on enforcement nor addressing issues of trafficking, I am banking on my experience as a visual reporter to try and create a visual map, a story with little words and offer the viewer a visual experience of how systematic human traffickers can be and how we, even as normal citizens can take a stand and be vigilant in combatting this heinous crime.
It was 1030pm in Cebu, along Mango road. I sit in one of the al fresco bars, people watching and looking out on how deals are done and bookings made. According to online forums, the Mango Square is but one of several places to meet up. The evening was quite packed even for a Thursday. Bass thumping from several dance clubs, karaoke blasting in the nearby kiosk and the smell of nicotine and cologne melts with the gentle humid breeze. I was wondering where I can find a willing subject to talk to. I failed as most wanted to get ‘hired’ or for some payment for their time. But before moving on, a few people whispered an even more darker arena hidden from plain sight, the cyberporn industry.
I made my way to the town of Cordova early the next day. It wasn’t too long ago that the town was in the spotlight for being a ‘host’ to several cyberporn operations even inside shanty houses. As I tried to manoeuvre my way in side streets, I got unwelcome stares so I decided to coordinate with locals instead. The officials were accommodating but obviously didn’t want to pursue nor exert much effort to assist me around the area. I left with no images but with a stronger sense of why the city (Cebu) is set as the main destination for both trafficked people and the customers. As I walked a few blocks before hopping onto a cab, there were restaurants, cafes and other commercial hubs with people enjoying themselves. I wonder, are they ever
The bustle of the city started to fade, the noise eases as its enveloped by the crashing of the waves and hum of the fast craft. Passing through the port station, I looked around on how porous this point is. I think it is important to strengthen exit/entry points in order to monitor the movements of traffickers. Also, as this is one of the choke points of tourists, a heightened information drive would go a long way. We docked in Ormoc port half past 8. sun was up and at the city was moving. A little different than her sister island from across the shore. Here I met, friend Aaron and Mila (not their real names) who were both working in the sugarcane fields. It is a way of life, for those who grew up in a generation of famers that they also need to help to till the land.
Most families moved from the inner districts hoping to find better paying jobs, only a few find success. Most would still be working in agricultural lands owned by the rich few. Even if their story is not as rich as the ones trafficked into cities, they sweat it out in the fields after school and during holidays in order to help the family’s earnings. It is a bit complicated and careless to approach the subject as to only lack of livelihood, but from what I have witnessed the best way to combat this cycle is to strengthen the educational system most specially in areas far from the cities.
Driving the route to ground zero was melancholic but not without hope. It was in this land that I had a rid awakening, along with other journalists who covered the height and recovery from Typhoon Haiyan. I still remember the moment I entered Tacloban almost a month after the destruction. The city and whoever was left was trying to get back on their feet. The survivors were little by little tidying up their homes and trying to create makeshift spaces for the coming cold nights. Underneath of it all, another emergency was at hand. Women and children specifically, are under threat from the opportunists as the city is still in limbo.
Pamela greeted me with a smile at a shelter in Tacloban. She agreed to tell her story and was highly recommended by the shelter directress as hers is one of this that fits the big screen. She was molested by her father twice before she decided that it was enough and ran away. Spending most of her time in the streets, she fell prey to an offer to urn extra in one of the hostels in the city. That one time ended up being held for over a month without pay and fed poorly. She was also taught how to use crack (shabu) in order to ‘ease the pain’. Pam woke up one day and felt that she was in grave danger if she kept on doing this, she figured out a way to escape her captors and to ask for help from local authorities. She was also pregnant, suspecting that her last partner (a korean who worked in one of the ships that docks in the nearby towns) was the father. This pushed her to take a new lease in life. She was barely in her teens, when this all happened. And the reality that women and children are housed in shelters all over the Visayas region everyday as human trafficking continues to happen.
‘I feel that I am better now. I am thankful for this shelter and the people who are running it for being persistent even if I wasn’t cooperative when I was new. I want to be able to heal the things that hurt me. I want to move on with my life, with my son.’ she muttered as her year-old son clings on to her leg while she unloads her school bag.
The damage that the monstrous winds and deadly surges brought by Typhoon Haiyan was the main perpetrator. But those who have taken advantage at the time of recovery are those who have criminal intentions. This is where strength is needed, this where we need to stand up and be more vigilant.
As I packed my bags and write some end notes, I remember what one priest in a shelter for displaced persons told me a few months back: “People who are displaced doesn’t need to be spoon fed. They should be taught dignity because when they are in a ‘poor’ state it is easy to say they just need to endure and beat the odds. How can they even think of the future if they are in such a miserable state? We need to heal them of their misery in order for them to live a normal life”.
Pamela was watering the plants as her son plays around the shelter compound. “These are the things I love.” She muttered as I bid farewell.
©V.Villafranca 2026
