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Last night, I was invited to attend an opening ceremony for the fiesta in a remote barrio near the house of Councilor Ibuyan. It was a simple but meaningful ceremonial. The members of the council were all present. What I’ve appreciated most is the unity among all the members despite of their small and primitive community.
Consequently, immediately after the ceremonial concluded, I left the area to supposedly meet my friend. He is from the media network just arrived from Cebu to cover the sinulog festival. I waited for almost an hour but he didn’t reply to all my sms. So, I decided to go home early.
As I’m on my way home, I saw my youthmate riding his trisikad (trisikad is commonly used during the night in our barangay). Upon approaching, he asked me to take a ride and strolled around the near barangays. After a few minutes of strolling, his trisikad was almost emptied with fuel. He decided to load in the gasoline station near the Central Bank in Quirino Avenue. While waiting, I’ve observed the area. I noticed a group of young people at the back of Central Bank. And take note, these are young women of I think in the age of 14-17 years old. To add on, there were two old ladies maybe in their mid 40’s and props of two gays. When a private car or a cab will stop in front of them, the young ladies will fall in line and revealed their beautiful and innocent facets. Afterwhich, the old ladies will approach the car and do the negotiations. If both had agreed with the negotiation, a certain young lady will go inside the car. However, if both have disagreed, all the ladies will back to their positions. This routine is repeated and repeated until all of them will be pick up or until the sun is about to come out.
I was thinking, is prostitution is happening there? Does the parent of those young women have knowledge of their whereabouts? What about the two old ladies, do they knew that their so called business is punishable by the law of man and by the law of God? These questions pondered in my mind as on our way back home.
I remember also of the same occurrence while passing along San Pedro Street around half past 10:00 in the evening. The same routine, the same group members of young women and all the cast. We can’t deny the fact that in the Philippines specifically in Davao City, Prostitution is outrageous and is rampant that the city has a great partage with it. Evidently, can be seen in the middle of the dark streets trooping young women.
According to City Councilor Angela Librado-Trinidad in an interview with Sunstar Davao that the Prostitution albeit the world’s oldest profession, has already taken roots in the Filipino consciousness and is, therefore, not new by this seemingly age-old predicament has taken on modern proportions that we dare not ignore. Truly, but it does not end if the continuous sufferings of the citizens due to scarcity, unstoppable use of illegal drugs and among other things.
The authorities have been acting this dilemma, but hopefully more efforts are to be exerted.
