(Photo: Legarda’s official Facebook page)
MANILA – Senator Loren Legarda on Sunday commended the country’s upgraded ranking in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report of 2016, saying greater efforts should be done to address human trafficking.
In the 2016 TIP Report, the Philippines upgraded from Tier 2 to Tier 1, which means that the government has acknowledged the existence of human trafficking, made efforts to address the problem, and complied with the minimum standards for the elimination of international human trafficking.
“The promotion of Philippines to Tier 1 ranking is proof of the significant efforts being undertaken by the Philippine government to curb human trafficking and exploitation from and within the Philippines.” Legarda, principal sponsor of the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (R.A. 10364), said.
“I hope that our promotion to Tier 1 status will not lull us into a false sense of complacency. We should continue our fight against human trafficking through public awareness campaigns, capacity building, and continuous coordination and collaboration with key stakeholders,” she added.
The lady senator expressed confidence that the new administration of President Rodrigo Duterte will continue to strengthen anti-human trafficking efforts and champion the rights of many Filipino workers trapped in modern-day slavery.
Legarda also said that new measures have been enacted which will surely improve the Philippines’ anti-human trafficking efforts and combat modern forms of trafficking such as cyber trafficking.
These measures are the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Modernization Act, which Legarda co-authored, and the law creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), which she principally authored.