U.S. Dep't of State, 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Philippines

PHILIPPINES (Tier 1) The Government of the Philippines fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period; therefore, the Philippines remained on Tier 1. These efforts included investigating and prosecuting more alleged traffickers, finalizing and adopting Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) SOPs on the identification and monitoring of trafficking-related corruption cases, promulgating implementing rules and regulations for its amended anti-trafficking law, and sentencing nearly all traffickers to significant prison terms. Although the government meets the minimum standards, it did not consistently screen for trafficking individuals involved in online scam operations; therefore, authorities likely penalized and deported some victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.

The government identified fewer victims and courts convicted slightly fewer traffickers. Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: Investigate and prosecute traffickers, including labor traffickers and complicit officials, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms. * Increase efforts to proactively identify and assist labor trafficking victims, including victims of online scam operations, including by providing training to law enforcement, social service providers, and labor inspectors on indicators of trafficking. * Strengthen the capacity of local government units to provide reintegration services for trafficking survivors, including trauma-informed care, job training, and in-country employment. * Increase support to government and NGO programs that provide specialized care for trafficking victims, including child victims of online sexual exploitation. * Increase survivor engagement, including by establishing accessible mechanisms for receiving and providing compensation for survivor input when forming policies, programs, and trainings. * Ensure victims receive court-ordered restitution and compensation ordered through civil judgments. * Increase resources for anti-trafficking task forces and law enforcement units to conduct timely investigations, coordinated operations, and prosecutions while providing robust victim and witness assistance services. * Consistently implement the coordinated interagency response to providing services to returning Filipinos exploited in sex and labor trafficking overseas. * Create a central database for information on illegal recruiters and human trafficking cases to facilitate interagency coordination in detecting, investigating, and prosecuting traffickers.

PROSECUTION

The government increased law enforcement efforts. The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, as amended, criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to 20 years’ imprisonment and fines of between 1 million and 2 million pesos ($18,030 to $36,070). These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. During the previous reporting period, the government amended the anti-trafficking law, which expanded the forms of exploitation included within the definition of trafficking in persons to include the production, creation, or distribution of child sexual abuse and exploitation materials (CSAEM).

The amendments also expanded the list of acts by private sector entities that constitute facilitation of trafficking and prescribed additional financial penalties for such crimes. The government issued implementing rules and regulations to allow full enforcement of the amended anti-trafficking law. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippines National Police (PNP) investigated 417 trafficking cases, compared with 277 investigations in the previous reporting period. The government prosecuted 264 alleged traffickers – 217 for sex trafficking and 47 for labor trafficking, compared with prosecuting 139 alleged traffickers – 115 for sex trafficking and 24 for labor trafficking in the previous reporting period.

The government continued 2,772 prosecutions initiated in prior years. Courts convicted 80 traffickers – 71 for sex trafficking and nine for labor trafficking, compared with 86 traffickers – 83 for sex trafficking and three for labor trafficking in the previous reporting period. Courts sentenced 60 traffickers convicted under the anti-trafficking act to significant prison terms, ranging from four years to life imprisonment, and fines ranging from 50,000 to eight million pesos ($900 to $144,270). Courts sentenced eight traffickers convicted under other laws to prison terms, ranging from six months to life imprisonment, and fines ranging from 500,000 to four million pesos ($9,020 to $72,140).

Courts used plea bargaining in human trafficking cases, particularly those involving the online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC), which significantly decreased the time to reach case resolution and further reduced the potential for re-traumatizing child witnesses in trials, many of which involved traffickers who were family members of the victims. Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. The government continued to prosecute two government officials implicated in trafficking crimes, including a police officer allegedly involved in cyber-facilitated sex trafficking and a police officer who allegedly helped a suspected trafficker avoid prosecution. Authorities ended the prosecution of an immigration official accused of complicity in the facilitation of trafficking, citing a lack of evidence.

The government investigated 103 immigration personnel and dismissed 63 for alleged involvement in trafficking; the government did not report criminal charges against any of the alleged traffickers. This compared with investigating 233 administrative cases against immigration personnel in 2022. Following allegations of official complicity in a large online scam operation resulting in the exploitation of more than 730 potential labor trafficking victims under the guise of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO), the government discharged and began investigating a municipal police chief and 26 other officers for “neglect of duty.” The government did not report updates to this case, or whether authorities investigated the allegedly complicit officials for trafficking crimes. Immigration officials, especially at lower levels, accepted bribes to facilitate or ignore trafficking crimes, including tampering with or producing fraudulent travel documents.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) implemented a “one-strike” policy for disciplining immigration officials implicated in corruption or trafficking cases and began implementing the rotation of immigration officials in ports of entry and exit. IACAT adopted and began implementing SOPs, finalized in the previous reporting period, on identification and monitoring of trafficking-related corruption cases, which included reporting mechanisms and employee suspension guidelines. NBI and PNP led the government’s investigative efforts and IACAT led prosecutorial operations for 25 interagency anti-trafficking task forces (a Department of Justice (DOJ)-led task force, a national interagency task force, 16 regional task forces, six interagency air and seaport task forces, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’s task force). Designated prosecutors led the task forces with the assistance of prosecutors who worked on trafficking cases in addition to their regular workloads; they helped enhance law enforcement efforts and ensure the reporting, referring, and filing of trafficking cases.

The government added 114 new prosecutors as task force members in 2023, increasing the total number to 547. In May 2023, DOJ issued a policy directive mandating prosecutors to proactively guide and assist law enforcement agencies in investigating and preparing all capital offense cases, including trafficking and online sexual abuse or exploitation of children (OSAEC) cases. The anti-trafficking law, amended in 2022, along with the adoption of an Anti-OSAEC and Anti-CSAEM Act, imposed additional obligations on Internet companies to provide information to law enforcement relating to sex trafficking crimes; during the current and prior reporting periods, law enforcement made numerous subpoena and financial transaction requests pursuant to relevant provisions in these laws, and private Internet intermediaries were reportedly increasingly responsive and cooperative. The government did not report continued engagement with private Internet intermediaries.

The government engaged in anti-trafficking dialogue, cooperated in investigations and prosecutions, and shared information with foreign governments. As part of the Philippines Internet Crimes Against Children Center, the PNP Women and Children’s Protection Center (WCPC) and the NBI Anti-Human Trafficking Division cooperated with foreign counterparts and an international NGO on trafficking cases, primarily involving OSEC. PNP operated regional WCPC cyber protection units focused specifically on OSEC crimes and led the investigation of most OSEC cases. An NGO reported the lack of digital forensic personnel and unclear processes within Philippine law enforcement agencies had reportedly delayed intelligence sharing of OSEC cases with foreign counterparts.

In the past, government agencies have reported a need for additional anti-trafficking law enforcement personnel, funds for operations, and equipment for forensic analysis of digital evidence due in part to the extremely high volume of cybercrime tips related to OSEC the DOJ Office of Cybercrime received, totaling more than 2.7 million in 2023. Slow moving courts, a need for additional training on handling digital evidence in hearings and trials, and too few prosecutors also hindered the effective and timely prosecution of trafficking crimes. In prior years, NGOs reported police did not take sufficient steps to investigate and arrest purchasers of commercial sex, including foreign nationals engaging in extraterritorial sexual exploitation and abuse, and often did not question foreign national perpetrators who were present during operations in entertainment establishments. The government, in partnership with NGOs and foreign governments, trained police, immigration officers, social workers, prosecutors, and judges on various topics, including features from the newly amended anti-trafficking laws, investigative techniques, and victim identification.

PROTECTION

The government decreased efforts to protect victims. The government lacked a reliable mechanism to consolidate statistics on the total number of victims identified and assisted. However, the government reported identifying 890 victims – 545 sex trafficking victims (311 women, 46 men, 167 girls, and 21 boys) and 345 labor trafficking victims (158 women, 147 men, 23 girls, and 17 boys); this compared with identifying 1,277 victims in the previous reporting period. The government also reported identifying 1,134 victims of unspecified exploitation (494 women, 568 men, 44 girls, and 28 boys).

The government reported forms of exploitation under “unspecified exploitation,” which may not have been considered trafficking crimes according to the international law definition, such as illegal recruitment or adoption. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) identified and repatriated from abroad 431 potential Filipino trafficking victims, compared with 340 in the previous reporting period. An NGO reported law enforcement officers sometimes did not use trauma-informed practices in victim identification and lacked training on victim-centered approaches. The government assisted 2,024 victims in the Recovery and Reintegration Program for Trafficked Persons (RRPTP), maintained by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD); some of the 2,024 victims may not have been trafficking victims according to the international law definition.

In comparison, the government reported assisting 1,822 victims in the last reporting period. The government allocated 24.9 million pesos ($449,050) to implement the RRPTP, compared with 24.78 million pesos ($446,880) in 2022. Authorities referred identified victims to the RRPTP for services, including shelter, provisions of basic needs, medical care, education assistance, counseling, and livelihood assistance. DSWD continued to implement the national referral system and referred trafficking survivors to their community’s local social welfare and development office for follow-up services, which observers had noted in prior years lacked the requisite personnel and resources to provide individualized case follow-up.

Adult shelter residents could leave unchaperoned, provided there were no threats to their personal security or psychological care issues. Specialized assistance services, as well as reintegration follow-up services and job training and placement, were inadequate to address the needs of adult trafficking victims. DSWD could provide foreign national victims temporary shelter, psycho-social intervention, and coordinate repatriation with the relevant foreign embassies. The government operated 44 residential care facilities providing services to victims of crime, including trafficking.

Of these facilities, 24 served children, 13 served women, four served older persons, one served men, and two operated as temporary processing centers. DSWD supervised the Processing Center for Displaced Persons, a shelter built to accommodate deportees, and a local government operated the Social Development Center, which served displaced children. The government considered victim preference when determining the appropriate shelter and adult victims could choose not to reside in a shelter. IACAT operated a center in metro Manila which served as a specialized shelter for trafficking survivors and a one-stop service center for reporting potential cases of trafficking and providing referrals without the need for victims to contact multiple agencies.

In 2023, the center assisted 332 trafficking victims, including 65 children, compared with 227 victims, including 66 children in 2022. Due to insufficient screening for trafficking, especially among individuals exploited in online scam operations, the government likely inappropriately detained, penalized, and deported some trafficking victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Authorities released or detained at least 5,300 Filipino and foreign nationals involved in online scam operations under the guise of POGOs. In a June 2023 law enforcement action, authorities released more than 1,000 potential victims; an international organization screened 272 of these individuals and identified 185 as labor trafficking victims.

Authorities provided all foreign nationals identified in this June 2023 law enforcement action with Allow Departure Orders, waived immigration penalties, and repatriated them as trafficking victims. In follow-on law enforcement actions against online scam operations, observers reported authorities prevented civil society from screening victims and, potentially due to limited capacity, began deporting potential victims without identification. Authorities reported screening potential victims for trafficking indicators in all law enforcement actions against POGOs; however, authorities reported only identifying 362 foreign national victims, including the victims identified in the June 2023 action, despite widespread reports indicating the majority of individuals recruited for online scam operations faced conditions indicative of labor trafficking, including detention, torture, sexual violence, and the “sale” of victims between POGOs. In at least one law enforcement action, authorities detained foreign national potential victims in buildings which previously housed online scam operations as the potential victims awaited deportation.

DFA collaborated with IACAT and its member agencies to provide services for repatriated Filipino trafficking victims. Social workers from the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) were present in Philippine diplomatic missions in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Republic of Korea, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). DFA allocated 1 billion pesos ($18 million), the same as in 2022 and 2021, for the Assistance to Nationals Fund (ATN), which provided assistance such as airfare, meal allowance, shelter, medical care, and other services for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), some of whom were trafficking victims. DFA dispersed 298.3 million pesos ($5.4 million) from the ATN, compared with 435.1 million pesos ($7.8 million) in 2022.

In 2023, DFA assisted 431 trafficking victims identified by overseas missions, compared with 340 in 2022. The DMW is responsible for assisting distressed overseas Filipino workers and their families, and assisted 163 trafficking or illegal recruitment victims, compared with 735 in 2022. Social services provided to OFW trafficking victims included coordination with the host government, contract buy-out, shelter, provision of personal necessities, medical aid, financial assistance, payment of legal fees, repatriation, and referral to appropriate agencies. The government maintained the suspension of accreditation for new recruitment agencies and first-time workers who sought employment in Kuwait following the rape, beating, and murder of a Filipina domestic worker in Kuwait in January 2023; the government did not impose a complete ban on sending other workers to Kuwait.

Seven regional task forces had victim-witness coordinators who provided trauma-informed support and assistance to victims, including by providing continuous support throughout the criminal justice process; the coordinators supported 286 victims, compared with 337 in 2022. DOJ operations center personnel could provide transportation and security protections for victims to participate in case conferences and hearings. Twenty-eight trafficking victims entered the witness protection program in 2023 (61 in 2022), which included housing, livelihood and travel expenses, medical benefits, education, and vocational placement. Thirty-nine trafficking victims received financial assistance through the victims compensation program, and 642 trafficking victims received assistance throughout the duration of their participation in criminal proceedings.

Police and prosecutors used recorded child victim interviews at the inquest stage and in some trials, which reduced the number of times officials interviewed victims and the potential for re-traumatizing children who served as witnesses. The government used financial and digital evidence to prove trafficking and OSEC crimes in court, reducing the reliance on victim testimony and decreasing potential re-traumatization of child victims. The government did not report any orders of restitution paid by traffickers to trafficking victims, and NGO observers reported that while judges awarded victims restitution, victims rarely received it in practice and courts lacked effective mechanisms to collect damages from traffickers. The government maintained a victim compensation fund and supported survivors in making claims.

IACAT and the Commission on Filipinos Overseas operated a dedicated trafficking hotline, which received 2,189 calls and resulted in 33 trafficking cases and 14 identified victims, referring all cases to law enforcement and all victims to services. This is compared with 2,487 calls which resulted in 34 trafficking cases and 18 identified victims in the previous reporting period. PNP and WCPC also operated hotlines, and the DFA Office of Migrant Workers Affairs maintained a HELP Facebook page for Filipinos working abroad who were in distress for their families to request assistance.

PREVENTION

The government slightly increased efforts to prevent trafficking. IACAT led the government’s anti-trafficking efforts and met five times. IACAT was composed of 29 member agencies, which included 26 government agencies, three NGOs, and survivor members. In the previous reporting period, the OSAEC Act expanded IACAT’s functions to include OSEC cases and created the National Coordination Center against OSAEC and CSAEM.

The government allocated 99.3 million pesos ($1.8 million) to the IACAT Secretariat’s budget, compared with 90.77 million pesos ($1.6 million) in 2022. The government consulted survivors in the development of its Fourth National Strategic Action Plan Against Trafficking in Persons 2023-2027 and began implementation in April 2023. The government, in partnership with civil society, conducted awareness raising activities targeting school-aged children, teachers, airport personnel, local officials, and the public. IACAT conducted research on informal migration patterns to inform awareness campaigns and strengthen cooperation with local governments.

The Department of Labor and Employment overseas labor officers reviewed OFWs’ labor contracts and assisted with labor contract violations and allegations of abuse; the DMW investigated and regulated recruitment agencies. Under updated implementing regulations of the anti-trafficking law, the government granted the DMW broader authority to investigate and sanction agencies and entities involved in illegal recruitment or trafficking. The Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) DMW filed 4,521 administrative charges against licensed recruitment agencies for disallowed practices and cancelled 14 agencies’ licenses, compared with 1,037 charges and 26 cancellations of agencies’ licenses in the previous reporting period. The government maintained bilateral labor agreements with various destination countries on the recruitment of migrant workers and protection of their rights.

International organizations reported the high volume of employment contracts requiring verification by POEA and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office caused delays in the issuance of overseas employment certificates required for departures. In response to the increased prevalence of online scam operations and labor trafficking in POGOs, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation released a new regulatory framework in July 2023. In addition to rebranding POGO licenses as Internet Gaming Licenses, the new framework limited the physical size of each licensee to 25,000 square meters and included provisions to identify foreign ownership in an effort to prevent the establishment of online scam operations, which frequently included labor trafficking and other crimes. In August 2023, the government introduced revised SOPs for trafficking screening of internationally-bounded Filipino nationals before air travel and referring potential victims to care; however, the government suspended implementation immediately afterward.

The BI Travel Control and Enforcement Unit screened departing passengers and deferred the departure of 34,353 passengers (32,834 in 2022) due to incomplete or suspicious travel documents or misrepresentation. The government provided anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel. The government did not prohibit recruitment fees. The lack of a centralized database tracking illegal recruitment and human trafficking hindered the government’s efforts to prevent trafficking and hold traffickers accountable.

The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts; however, the government screened for and denied entry to 217 registered sex offenders. The government made efforts to prevent trafficking in its supply chains. TRAFFICKING PROFILE: As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in the Philippines, and traffickers exploit victims from the Philippines abroad. Traffickers exploit women and children from rural communities, conflict- and disaster-affected areas, and impoverished urban centers in sex trafficking, forced domestic work, forced begging, and other forms of forced labor in tourist destinations and urban areas around the country, and traffickers exploit men in forced labor in the agricultural, construction, fishing, and maritime industries, sometimes through debt-based coercion.

Family members sell children to employers for domestic labor or sexual exploitation, and hundreds of thousands of children involved in selling and begging on the streets are vulnerable to trafficking. The government reported 1.48 million Filipino children ages five to 17 years old worked in 2022, with 732,600 working in the services sector, almost 640,000 in agriculture, more than 100,000 in the industrial sector. One study found approximately 50,000 Filipino children are employed as domestic workers in the Philippines, including nearly 5,000 who are younger than the age of 15 years. A significant percentage of working children face hazardous working conditions, including in mines, factories, and farms, where they likely experience indicators of forced labor.

Indigenous persons and many of the approximately 340,000 IDPs reported in 2022 in Mindanao are at risk of trafficking, including through fraudulent promises of employment. Traffickers increasingly transport victims domestically and internationally along “backdoor” routes between Zamboanga City to Jolo, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, or to neighboring countries. LGBTQI+ individuals frequently experience discrimination and are vulnerable to trafficking. Natural disasters and climate change-induced displacement significantly increases Filipinos’ vulnerability to trafficking due to a loss of livelihood, shelter, or family stability; flooding in Mindanao displaced at least 800,000 and affected more than 1.4 million individuals in February 2024 alone.

NGO reports indicate post-disaster vulnerabilities are made more acute by gender and class inequalities enshrined in government responses. Non-state armed groups operating in the Philippines, including the Communist Party of the Philippines’ New People’s Army, the Maute Group, the Abu Sayyaf Group, and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, unlawfully recruit and use child soldiers – at times through force – for combat and noncombat roles. In previous years, the Armed Forces of the Philippines allegedly unlawfully recruited and used children in support roles; however, there were no reports of recruitment or use. Non-state supporters of ISIS have exploited women and girls in sexual slavery in the Philippines.

Orphans and unaccompanied children are vulnerable to recruitment by armed forces and non-state groups. Each year, the government processes approximately 2.3 million employment contracts for Filipinos to work overseas in nearly 170 countries. Traffickers exploit a significant number of Filipino migrant workers in sex or labor trafficking in numerous industries, including industrial fishing, shipping, construction, manufacturing, education, home health care, and agriculture, as well as in domestic work, janitorial service, and other hospitality-related jobs globally, but particularly in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Saudi and Omani diplomats have exploited Filipino workers in domestic servitude in Europe and the United States, and there are reports of perpetrators physically abusing or murdering Filipino domestic workers in Kuwait.

Traffickers, typically in partnership with local networks and facilitators and increasingly through the use of social networking sites and other digital platforms, recruit unsuspecting Filipinos through illegal recruitment practices such as deception, hidden fees, and production of fraudulent passports, overseas employment certificates, and contracts to exploit migrant workers in sex and labor trafficking. Traffickers fraudulently recruit dozens of Filipino domestic workers to work in the UAE but instead have transported them to Damascus, Syria for forced domestic work. Traffickers lure and exploit some children from remote areas of Mindanao and other regions using tourist visas available in Middle East countries where many Filipinos work in household service jobs; traffickers “sell” these children to employment sponsors after arrival. Traffickers use student and intern exchange programs and fake childcare positions, as well as porous maritime borders, to circumvent the Philippine government and destination countries’ regulatory frameworks for foreign workers to evade detection.

Traffickers often exploit Filipinos already working overseas through fraudulent employment offers to work in another country. Traffickers sometimes take advantage of the absence of adequate immigration personnel at smaller airports in the Philippines. Observers report traffickers are increasingly using “intra-company transferee” and “short-term visitor” visas – both legitimate and fraudulent – to facilitate the travel of Filipino engineers and undergraduate students to Japan, where traffickers subsequently exploit them in forced labor in factories. Sex trafficking frequently occurs in tourist destinations, such as Boracay, Angeles City, Olongapo, Puerto Galera, and Surigao, where there is a high demand for commercial sex acts.

Child sex trafficking remains a pervasive problem, often abetted by taxi drivers who have knowledge of clandestine locations. Many perpetrators engaging in extraterritorial commercial child sexual exploitation and abuse in the Philippines are convicted or charged sex offenders or pedophiles in their home countries and are most commonly citizens of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with an increasing number of reports from Canada, Morocco, Iraq, and Denmark. Filipino men also exploit child trafficking victims in domestic commercial child sexual exploitation and abuse. Law enforcement information indicates the Philippines is one of the largest known sources of OSEC, in which traffickers sexually exploit children, individually and in groups, in live internet broadcasts in exchange for compensation wired through a money transfer agency by individuals most often in another country, including the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The traffickers are often parents or close relatives who operate in private residences or small cyber cafes, and many child victims, girls and boys, are younger than 12 years old. Identified hotspots for this form of sex trafficking in Luzon and Visayas include Iligan, Lapu-Lapu, Pampanga, Quezon City, Malabon, Pasig, Taguig, and Caloocan. Reports cited a nearly 265 percent increase in unconfirmed reports of online child sexual abuse during the pandemic. One study found two out of 10 Filipino internet-using children ages 12 to 17 years (approximately two million) were subjected to OSEC.

Economic impacts of the pandemic, combined with an increased amount of time children spent at home, resulted in an increasing number of families forcing their children into online sexual exploitation. Traffickers increasingly use social media, messaging, and video-chat applications to recruit and exploit children in tech-facilitated trafficking for OSEC. Traffickers exploit People’s Republic of China (PRC) national and other Asian women in commercial sex in locations near POGOs that cater to PRC nationals. Traffickers exploit Filipino nationals in forced labor in online scam operations located primarily in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos.

Traffickers also exploit victims from Southeast Asia, in forced labor in online scam operations at POGOs. PRC nationals employed in the Philippines at worksites affiliated with the PRC’s Belt and Road Initiative are vulnerable to forced labor. Some officials in law enforcement, immigration agencies, and other government entities are allegedly complicit in trafficking or allow traffickers to operate with impunity. Some corrupt officials allegedly accept bribes to facilitate migration outside of regular channels for overseas workers, operate sex trafficking establishments, facilitate production of fraudulent identity documents, or overlook irregular labor recruiters.

Reports in previous years asserted police conducted indiscriminate or fake law enforcement actions on commercial sex establishments to extort money from managers, clients, and victims. Anecdotal reports indicate police and local government units exploit in labor trafficking individuals who voluntarily surrender to officials running the government’s anti-drug campaign. On This Page search > < PHILIPPINES (Tier 1) PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: PROSECUTION PROTECTION PREVENTION TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Tags Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Human Trafficking Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Philippines Reports