Web of crimes against women exposed

For only 5$ each, some 10 million Filipino women have been lost to mail-order-bride syndicates for the past 20 years, according to Senate President Manny Villar. Most of them are forced into prostitution, Villar said yesterday after he filed Senate Resolution 101 seeking to expose the “web of crimes” of these syndicates.

“Where are our women? Why are they being desecrated?” Villar wanted to find them. “They are being marketed abroad for $5 each. That’s a direct affront to every Filipina’s dignity and well-being.”

An advocate of women’s rights, Villar urged the Senate committee on youth, women and family relations to inquire into the plight of these women and the brazen violation of women’s laws.

“The practice of marketing Filipino women as mail-order brides is openly pushed via several Internet sites such as www.2bwed.com, www.afilipina. com and www.1mail-orderbrid es.com.”

Each site advertises Filipino women just like any other commodity being sold online, Villar said.

For instance, he said, www2bwed.com says: “World-class service for a 10th of a century has been in business to introduce girls from the Philippines who would like to correspond, meet and marry Western men through which Filipino women can be instantly ordered subject to a $5 processing fee.”

On the other hand, he said, www.afilipina. com advertises: “Mail-order brides, pen pal girls exclusively from the Philippines, lovely Filipina ladies wishing to correspond and meet foreign gentlemen for romance and possible marriage.”
While www,1mailorderbride s.com says: “Philippine women from Luzon have master degrees.”

Villar said the syndicates have been very successful in preying on these “hapless women” that some 300,000 to 500,000 women are being smuggled out of the Philippines yearly as mail-order brides.

Villar was even more outraged after he learned that the existing laws have not been strictly enforced that resulted in the flourishing of the “white slavery ring” for the past 20 years.

He said Republic Act 6955 was enacted on June 13, 1990 and seeks to declare as unlawful the practice of matching Filipino women for marriage to foreign nationals on a mail-order basis and other similar practices, including the advertisement, publication, printing or distribution of brochures, fliers and other propaganda materials in furtherance thereof and providing penalty.

“The government must implement the law prohibiting the violation of Filipino women, and should look after distressed Filipinas who have suffered abuses in the hands of foreign spouses,” he stressed.

Villar directed the Senate committee to conduct an inquiry into the growing number of Filipino mail-order brides and on the non-implementation of relevant laws, resulting in the “violation and desecration of Filipino women, with the end in view of charting remedial measures to protect the dignity of Filipinas.”

Christine F. Herrera / Manila Standard Today / 31 August 2007