Why do we allow the prostitution establishments that harbor and receive them to operate with impunity? Even as RA 9208 was passed, the age-old Vagrancy Law, which punishes women in prostitution, was not automatically repealed. Women, and sometimes children, in prostitution are arrested, prosecuted as criminals, jailed and in many cases sexually abused by policemen and investigators in the process. Persons that are rescued are those who have been forced or deceived. This is despite the fact that the CEDAW Committee recommended “educational and economic opportunities” for women in prostitution to provide them adequate options “thereby reducing and eliminating their vulnerability to exploitation and traffickers” and “reintegrat[ing them] into society and provid[ing] rehabilitation, social integration and economic empowerment programmes to women and girls who are victims of exploitation and trafficking.” The CEDAW Committee also urged the Philippines to “prosecute and punish traffickers and those who exploit the prostitution of women, and provide protection to victims of trafficking.” Women’s groups invoke this even as the anti-prostitution bill being pushed for by survivors and advocates has been languishing in the Philippine parliament for almost a decade now. The said bill would have repealed the Vagrancy Act provision in the Revised Penal Code and increased the penalties against buyers of women and children in prostitution, thereby discouraging demand, in compliance also with the UN Anti-Trafficking Protocol. The Philippine government similarly continues to promote labor export as an employment program. Under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a million migrant workers are targeted for overseas deployment every year, contradicting Republic Act 8042 which states that “...the State does not promote overseas employment as a means to sustain economic growth and achieve national development”. Moreover, whereas the law (RA 8042) allows the deployment of workers only in countries where the rights of Filipino Migrant Workers are protected based on existing labour and social laws, agreements, declarations and resolutions, and other protective measures, there are more than 2 million overseas Filipino workers in many of the Gulf countries where their rights are very difficult to protect. To quote the reply of Philippine Migrants’ Rights Groups to the Philippine Report to the UN Migrant Workers Committee, “As part of its labor export policy, the Philippine government negotiates with labor receiving countries of Filipino workers, but at present has forged agreements with only 9% of the total 193 countries and territories.” The push for overseas employment, instead of creation of local jobs, puts a huge population of people desperate for jobs, majority of whom are women, in a position of lack of choice. Many trafficked women that we have helped lament that they are pushed to leave the country because the jobs they get locally last only for three to four months. Some end up in Taiwan with two employers, working for 18 hours, without decent food, then raped, too, by the Domestic Implementation of International Standards Combating Human Trafficking ❙ 51