GAWING LEGAL ANG PROSTITUSYON - PAYAG BA KAYO>

Prostitution is the act or practice of engaging in sex acts for hire.

In most cultures, prostitution is viewed as a deviant profession, either discouraged or illegal; however, motivations vary from the implications of those potentially exposed to that activity to whether it constitutes or not an exploitative practice.

The word "prostitution" can also be used metaphorically to mean debasement or working towards an unworthy cause

Today, human trafficking is primarily for prostituting women and children.

It is described as "the largest slave trade in history" and is the fastest growing criminal industry, set to outgrow drug trafficking.

‘To prostitute’ is derived from a composition of two Latin words: (preposition) pro and (verb) statuere. A literal translation therefore would be: ‘to expose’, ‘to place up front’.

A variety of terms are used for those who engage in prostitution, some of which distinguish between different kinds, or imply a value judgment about them. Common alternatives for prostitute include escort and whore, although not all professional escorts are prostitutes.
The English word whore derives from the Old English word hōra, from the Indo-European root kā meaning "desire". Use of the word whore is widely considered pejorative, especially in its modern slang form of ho'. In Germany most prostitutes' organizations deliberately use the word Hure (whore) since they feel that prostitute is a bureaucratic term. Those seeking to remove the social stigma associated with prostitution often promote terminology such as sex worker, commercial sex worker (CSW), "tantric engineer" (coined by author Robert Anton Wilson), or sex trade worker. A hooker or streetwalker solicits customers in public places; a call girl makes appointments by phone.


Correctly or not, prostitute without specifying a gender is commonly assumed to be female; compound terms such as Male prostitution or male escort are therefore used to identify males. Those offering services to female customers are commonly known as gigolos; those offering services to male customers are hustlers or rent boys.

Organizers of prostitution are typically known as pimps (if male) and madams (if female). More formally, they practice procuring, and are procurers, or procuresses.
The customers of prostitutes are known as johns or tricks in North America and punters in the British Isles. These slang terms are used among both prostitutes and law enforcement for persons who solicit prostitutes.

The term john may have originated from the customer practice of giving their name as "John", a common name in English-speaking countries, in an effort to maintain anonymity. In some places, men who drive around red-light districts for the purpose of soliciting prostitutes are also known as kerb crawlers.

The position of prostitution and the law varies widely worldwide, reflecting differing opinions on victimhood and exploitation, inequality, gender roles, gender equality, ethics and morality, freedom of choice, historical social norms, and social costs and benefits.


Legal themes tend to address four types of issue: victimhood (including potential victimhood), ethics and morality, freedom of choice, and general benefit or harm to society (including harm arising indirectly from matters connected to prostitution).
Prostitution may be considered a form of exploitation of women (eg, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, where it is illegal to buy sexual services, but not to sell them—the client commits a crime, but not the prostitute), a legitimate occupation (eg, Netherlands, Germany, where prostitution is regulated as a profession) or a crime (eg, many Muslim countries, where the prostitutes face severe penalties).

The legal status of prostitution varies from country to country, from being legal and considered a profession to being punishable by death.

Some jurisdictions outlaw the act of prostitution (the exchange of sexual services for money); other countries do not prohibit prostitution itself, but ban the activities typically associated with it (soliciting in a public place, operating a brothel, pimping etc), making it difficult to engage in prostitution without breaking any law; while in a few countries prostitution is legal and regulated.

During the late 1980s, The Newhall Signal, a weekly newspaper published in Ventura County, California, presented a series of articles about the Church Of The Most High Goddess, founded by Mary Ellen Tracy and her husband Wilbur Tracy, where sexual acts played a fundamental role in the church's sacred rites. The articles aroused the attention of local law enforcement officials, and in April 1989, the Tracy's house was searched and the couple arrested on charges of pimping, pandering and prostitution. They were subsequently convicted in a trial in state court and sentenced to jail terms: Wilbur Tracy for 180 days plus a $1,000.00 fine; Mary Ellen Tracy for 90 days plus mandatory screening for STDs

In countries where prostitution is legal, advertising it may be legal (as in the Netherlands) or illegal (as in Germany)

Covert advertising for prostitution can take a number of forms:
• by cards in newsagents' windows
• by cards placed in public telephone enclosures: so-called tart cards
• by euphemistic advertisements in regular magazines and newspapers (for instance, talking of "massages" or "relaxation")
• in specialist contact magazines
• via the internet
• in public bathroom stalls (i.e. "for a good time call...")


In Las Vegas prostitution is often promoted overtly on The Las Vegas Strip by third party workers distributing risque flyers with the pictures and phone numbers of "escorts" (despite the fact that prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas and Clark County.

One of the most serious problems associated with prostitution is the fact that the sex trade is surrounded by illegal, abusive and dangerous activities. One view insists that such situations occur because prostitution is kept illegal and the industry operates on the black market.

Another, however, believes that legalizing and regulating prostitution does not improve the situation, but instead makes it worse.

Establishments engaged in sexual slavery are the highest priority targets of law enforcement actions against prostitution.

It has been suggested that human trafficking is the fastest growing form of contemporary slavery and is the third largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world

The White Slave

Children are sold into the global sex trade every year. Often they are kidnapped or orphaned, and sometimes they are sold by their own families. According to the International Labor Organization, the problem is especially alarming in Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal and India

Poverty, social exclusion and war are at the heart of human trafficking. Some women are hoodwinked into believing promises of a better life, sometimes by people who are known and trusted to them.

Traffickers may own legitimate travel agencies, modeling agencies and employment offices in order to gain women's trust. Others are simply kidnapped.

Once overseas it is common for their passport to be confiscated by the trafficker and to be warned of the consequences should they attempt to escape, including beatings, rape, threats of violence against their family and death threats. It is common, particularly in Eastern Europe, that should they manage to return to their families they will only be trafficked once again

Regarding the prostitution of children the laws on prostitution as well as those on sex with a child apply. If prostitution in general is legal there is usually a minimum age requirement for legal prostitution that is higher than the general age of consent . Although some countries do not single out patronage of child prostitution as a separate crime, the same act is punishable as sex with an underage person.

In India, the federal police say that around 1.2 million children are believed to be involved in prostitution. A CBI statement said that studies and surveys sponsored by the ministry of women and child development estimated that about 40% of all India's prostitutes are children.

Thailand’s Health System Research Institute reported that children in prostitution make up 40% of prostitutes in Thailand.

Some adults travel to other countries to have access to sex with children, which is unavailable in their home country. Cambodia has become a notorious destination for sex with children.

Thailand is also a destination for child sex tourism. Several western countries have recently enacted laws with extraterritorial reach, punishing citizens who engage in sex with minors in other countries. As the crime usually goes undiscovered, these laws are rarely enforced

Some drug users, most commonly heroin or crack cocaine users, obtain their drugs primarily through prostitution.

Some receive money for the sex, which is then used to pay for drugs. Others, sometimes called strawberries, receive the drug directly in trade for sex.

These drug-addicted prostitutes most commonly take part in street prostitution, as they typically lack the resources to work independently from a private residence or be escort prostitutes, and many brothels do not want to employ visible drug users.

Street drug dealing and prostitution are often closely related, with many street-level drug dealers also acting as pimps and vice versa.

In affluent countries such as the United States and Western Europe the correlation between street prostitution and illegal drug use is high. In contrast, many prostitutes in the developing world are primarily motivated by the need for subsistence earnings for themselves or dependents. However, drugs and prostitution are increasingly becoming connected in urban areas in the developing world, for example in urban areas in Karachi and Thailand.

Not all prostitutes who use recreational drugs are driven to prostitution by their habit, but the two subcultures are still closely linked.

In street prostitution the prostitute solicits customers while waiting at street corners or "walking the street".

Brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution, often confined to special red-light districts in big cities. Other names for brothels include bordello, whorehouse, cathouse, knocking shop, and general houses. Prostitution also occurs in some massage parlors, and in Asian countries in some barber shops where sexual services may be offered as a secondary function of the premises.

In escort prostitution, the act takes place at the customer's place of residence or more commonly at his or her hotel room (referred to as out-call), or at the escort's place of residence or in a hotel room rented for the occasion by the escort (called in-call). This form of prostitution often shelters under the umbrella of escort agencies, who ostensibly supply attractive escorts for social occasions. While escort agencies claim never to provide sexual services, very few successful escorts are available exclusively for social companionship.

Even where this type of prostitution is legal, the ambiguous term escort service is commonly used. .

In the US, escort agencies advertise frequently on the internet and example advertisements can be readily found on any major search engine and on open forum sites, which also often provide "reviews" of escorts, discuss and debate issues surrounding what is referred to on the internet as "the hobby", give warnings to both escorts and potential clients of possible scams and law enforcement entrapments, and allow a place for independent escorts (one who is not associated with an "agency", or escort service) to advertise and also discuss issues with other escorts in a comparatively anonymous setting.

Some escorts may work independently of an agency (indies). This is achieved by advertising the services on offer directly in newspapers, magazines or the internet. Communication with clients is usually made on a telephone and appointments are negotiated without any third party involvement. In sex tourism, travelers from rich countries travel to poorer countries such as Thailand in search of sexual services that may be more expensive in their own countries. Other popular sex tourism destinations are Brazil, the Caribbean, and former Eastern bloc countries (despite the fact that prostitution is illegal in many of these countries).

The setting common in Russia (where prostitution is illegal) and other countries of the former USSR takes the form of an open-air prostitution market. One prostitute stands by a roadside, and directs cars to a so-called "tochka" (usually located in alleyways or carparks), where lines of women are paraded for customers in front of their car headlights. The client selects a prostitute, whom he takes away in his car. Under these conditions in particular, the women (often very young girls) are exposed to the risk of abuse. Prevalent in the late 1990s, this type of service has been steadily declining in recent years.

A "lot lizard" is a commonly-encountered special case of street prostitution.
Lot lizards mainly serve those in the trucking industry at truck stops and stopping centers. Prostitutes will often proposition truckers using a CB radio from a vehicle parked in the non-commercial section of a truck stop parking lot, communicating through codes based on commercial driving slang, then join the driver in his truck.

In street prostitution, the prostitute solicits customers while waiting at street corners, sometimes called "the track" by pimps and prostitutes alike. They usually dress in skimpy, provocative clothing, regardless of the weather. Street prostitutes are often called "streetwalkers" while their customers are referred to as "tricks" or "johns."

Servicing the customers is described as "turning tricks." The sex is usually performed in the customer's car, in a nearby alley, or in a rented room. Motels and hotels which accommodate prostitutes commonly rent rooms by the half or full hour.

Street prostitutes are often motivated by drug addiction (though the statistics are disputed), and are sometimes referred to by slang terms such as "crack whores" or "junkie whores." Sociologists refer to those who trade sex for drugs as "skeezers," and economists have established a direct correlation between the price of street prostitution and the price of cocaine.

Escort agencies typically advertise over the Internet, in regional publications and even telephone listings like the Yellow Pages. Many maintain websites with photo galleries of the employees. An interested client contacts an agency by telephone and offers a description of what kind of escort they are looking for. The agency will then suggest an employee who might fit that client's need. However, this kind of advertising often entails bait and switch practices in which photographs of attractive models who have no connection with the agency are used to attract customers, who are then sent whatever escort is available to the agency at the moment.


The agency collects the client's contact information and calls the escort. Usually, to protect the identity of the escort and ensure effective communication with the client, the agency arranges the appointment. Sometimes it may be up to the escort to contact the client directly to make arrangements for location and time of an appointment. If the agency does not supply transport to and from the client, the escort is also expected to call the agency upon arrival at the location and again upon leaving to assure his or her safe completion of the booking.

The purpose of discretion is to attempt to protect the escort agency (to some degree) from prosecution for breaking the law. If the employee is solely responsible for arranging any illegal aspects of their professional encounter the agency could try to maintain plausible deniability should an arrest be made. However in practice, the use of undercover police evidence or the use of links to reviews of the agencies escorts usually results in this failing.
Typically, an agency will charge their escorts either a flat fee for each client connection or a percentage of the prearranged rate. In San Francisco, it is usual for typical heterosexual-market agencies to negotiate for as little as $100, up to a full 50 percent of an escort's reported earnings (not counting any gratuity received). If they work independently doing either incalls or outcalls, prices can range from $200 to over $5,000 for more exclusive services. Most transactions occur in cash, and optional tipping of escorts by clients in most major US cities is customary but not compulsory. Credit card processing offered by larger scale agencies is often available for a service charge.

Independent escorts, also known as providers, have differing fees depending on many factors. For example; different seasons bring about different costs (and differing levels of demand), as do regular and semi-regular customers. Some may charge by the hour, half hour or even in 15 minute blocks. Time extensions (if offered or requested) are usually priced at the same rate as the original booking. Some escorts pay another individual to act as their personal security, thus providing a level of protection to themselves from violent or abusive clients.

An escort who works less often may be able to command a premium for his or her exclusivity. One who sees several clients each day may charge less, but earn more in the end. Independent escorts might see clients for extended meetings involving dinner or social activities, whereas escorts who work through agencies generally provide only sexual services.

Whilst the vast majority of escort agencies are sex related, there are some non-sexual escort agencies, where escorts provide companionship for business and social occasions.

Sex tourism is travelling for sexual intercourse with prostitutes or to engage in other sexual activity. The World Tourism Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations defines sex tourism as "trips organized from within the tourism sector, or from outside this sector but using its structures and networks, with the primary purpose of effecting a commercial sexual relationship by the tourist with residents at the destination".

Often the term "sex tourism" is mistakenly interchanged with the term "child sex tourism". As opposed to regular sex tourism, which is often legal, a tourist who has sex with a child prostitute will usually be committing a crime in the host country, under the laws of his own country (notwithstanding him being outside of it) and against international law. Child sex tourism (CST) is defined as a travel to a foreign country for the purpose of engaging in commercially facilitated child sexual abuse.

The term "child" is often used as defined by international law and refers to any person below the age of consent.[clarification needed][citation needed] Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil and Mexico have been identified as leading hotspots of child sexual exploitation.

Some prostitutes use the Internet to find customers.

A prostitute may use adult boards or create a website of their own with contact details, such as email addresses. Adult contact sites, chats and on-line communities are also used. In many parts of the developed world, the Internet is one of the main ways in which buyers find and contact prostitutes.

This, in turn, has brought increased scrutiny from law enforcement, public officials, and activist groups toward online prostitution. In 2009, Craigslist came under fire for its role in facilitating online prostitution, and was sued by some 40 US state attorney generals, local prosecutors, and law enforcement officials.

Craigslist has since altered its policies to make it more difficult for prostitutes to advertise anonymously, but still allows the advertising of sexual services, which critics contend includes illegal prostitution.

Reviews of the services of individual prostitutes often can be found at various escort review boards worldwide. These online forums are used to trade information between potential clients, and also by prostitutes to advertise the various services available. However, many other prostitutes are critical of such sites, as threats of a negative review are sometimes used by clients used to extort extra services or unsafe sex from sex workers.

Sex workers, in turn, often use online forums of their own to exchange information on clients, particularly to warn others about dangerous clients. Participants in these forums also exchange information on law enforcement activity, working conditions, and other matters important to sex workers.

Prostitution is associated with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as HIV: "One of the main reasons for the rapid spread of HIV in Asian countries is the massive transmission among sex workers and clients".

As a result, prevention campaigns aimed at sex workers play a major role in restricting the spread of HIV.

HIV is tied to prostitution in Africa, with one study finding that encounters with prostitutes produced 84% of new HIV infections in adult males in Accra, Ghana.

The spread of HIV from urban settings to rural areas in Africa has been attributed to the mobility of farmers who visit sex workers in cities, for example in Ethiopia.

Studies in urban settings of prostitution in developing countries have shown a striking burden of STDs, which acts as a reservoir of STDs within the general population.


Typical responses to the problem are:
• banning prostitution completely.
• educating prostitutes and their clients to encourage the use of barrier contraception and greater interaction with health care.
• introducing a system of registration for prostitutes that mandates health checks and other public health measures.

Some think that the first two measures are counter-productive. Banning prostitution tends to drive it underground, making safe sex promotion, treatment and monitoring more difficult. Registering prostitutes makes the state complicit in prostitution and does not address the health risks of unregistered prostitutes. Both of the last two measures can be viewed as harm reduction policies.

In countries and areas where safer sex precautions are either unavailable or not practiced for cultural reasons, prostitution is an active disease vector for all STDs, including HIV/AIDS, but the encouragement of safer sex practices, combined with regular testing for sexually transmitted diseases, has been very successful when applied consistently. As an example, Thailand's condom program has been largely responsible for the country's progress against the HIV epidemic.

It has been estimated that successful implementation of safe sex practices in India "would drive the [HIV] epidemic to extinction" while similar measures could achieve a 50% reduction in Botswana

Roughly speaking, the possible attitudes are:

• "Prostitution should be made to disappear":

o prohibitionism (both prostitutes and clients are criminalized and are seen as immoral, they are considered criminals): the prevailing attitude nearly everywhere in the United States, with a few exceptions in some rural Nevada counties

o abolitionism (prostitution itself is not prohibited, but most associated activities are illegal, in an attempt to make it more difficult to engage in prostitution, prostitution is heavily discouraged and seen as a social problem): prostitution (the exchange of sexual services for money) is legal, but the surrounding activities such as public solicitation, operating a brothel and other forms of pimping are prohibited, the current situation in the United Kingdom, France and Canada among others;

o neo-abolitionism ("prostitution is a form of violence against women, it is a violation of human rights, the clients of the prostitutes exploit the prostitutes"): prostitutes are not prosecuted, but their clients and pimps are, which is the current situation in Sweden, Norway and Iceland (in Norway the law is even more strict, forbidding also having sex with a prostitute abroad).

The Long View
Legalizing prostitution

By Manuel L. Quezon III
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:37:00 07/21/2008

Filed Under: Police, Laws, People

MANILA, Philippines - We are living in days when the Catholic Church has set out to basically nullify the Philippine Revolution, by making government the instrument for the propagation of the Faith. In all things related to sexuality, the hierarchy wants a return to innocence.

But when were we ever so? Take prostitution.

Prostitution is everywhere in our land, and this has been so since time immemorial. In the 1970s Nick Joaquin even wrote a short history of prostitution combined with a travelogue of the best places to find female flesh, circa pre-martial law Manila (he called it “Manila: Sin City?”). No success has been met in eliminating it. Perhaps the option left is to put women in control—not only of their bodies, but of the fruits of their labor should they decide that sex is to be their trade.

Samuel Johnson wrote that “In all countries there has been fornication, as in all countries there has been theft; but there may be more or less of the one, as well as of the other, in proportion to the force of law. All men will naturally commit fornication, as all men will naturally steal. And, Sir, it is very absurd to argue, as has been often done, that prostitutes are necessary to prevent violent effects of appetite from violating the decent order of life; nay, should be permitted in order to preserve the chastity of our wives and daughters. Depend upon it, severe laws, steadily enforced, would be sufficient against these evils, and would promote marriage.”

An obscure writer named William E. H. Lecky also wrote “Herself the supreme type of vice, she (the prostitute) is ultimately the most efficient guardian of virtue. But for her, the unchallenged purity of countless happy homes would be polluted, and not a few who, in the pride of their untempted chastity, think of her with an indignant shudder, would have known the agony of remorse and despair. On that one degraded and ignoble form are concentrated the passions that night have filled the world with shame. She remains, while creeds and civilizations rise and fall, the eternal priestess of humanity, blasted for the sins of the people.”

Now there is a commonly repeated and scurrilous piece of conventional wisdom that says a certain town in the Bicol region produces only two types of people: priests and prostitutes. This is, of course, not true, but it is useful to repeat it here because it calls attention to a disturbing duality in our country: we are famous for our Catholicism (in fact we seem to be held in special affection by Popes who see our nation as the cradle of a New Counter-Reformation) and our piety, and we are notorious for the plenitude of our prostitutes.

And, since this is the era of globalization, foreign prostitutes have been arriving in appreciable numbers, particularly Russians in the Ramos years, said to be much sought after by the Chinese community: one Russian prostitute in Davao did so well that she retired and set up a beauty parlor from which derived a prosperous—and impeccably honest—living. South Americans from Colombia and Brazil have made it to our shores, as have gigolos from the Middle East, reportedly favored by matrons.

Some might echo the philosopher Schopenhauer, who wrote that “Prostitutes are human sacrifices on the altar of monogamy,” and rightly so: in our local experience alone, most men find themselves in bed with a prostitute as part of an essential rite of passage subsidized by uncles and godfathers (again, a strange mixture of the sacred and the profane, what with sexual initiation probably farthest from the mind of the Church when it considers godparents), so as to prepare them for the rigors of the marriage bed.

And it can lead to a lifelong addiction. Wrote Simone de Beauvoir: “Marriage ... is directly related to prostitution, which, it has been said, follows humanity from ancient to modern times like a dark shadow over the family.” As with forbidden drugs, is society best served by punishing prostitutes, their customers, or the pimps? With the same regularity as the passing of the Church’s liturgical calendar, politicians file bills in Congress to punish prostitution, or at least the pimps; policemen raid nightclubs when they’re not busy taking in protection money; and once in a while a person of note is hauled in to jail after having been accused of trying to solicit sex by offering women money.

Some police officials previously took up the cudgels for rehabilitation and not punishment as the official line. This was in the Ramos years when officialdom wasn’t as terrified of the clergy as they are now. A Western Police District officer was recorded as having grumbled to the papers that the perpetual roundup of prostitutes was achieving nothing because, unless they were caught in the act, prostitutes could only be charged with vagrancy under our antique Revised Penal Code—a charge that only results in a small fine and instant release of the offender.

The solution seems to be, as most successful solutions are, a pragmatic one. Questions of morality put aside, some (not all) women’s groups have proposed that prostitution be legalized so that women engaged in the profession at least have the full protection of the law and access to insurance and health benefits, and can operate in an atmosphere less likely to foster victimization and brutality. This is, naturally, a highly controversial proposal, but not one that hasn’t worked more or less successfully in places like Holland. A great deal of the abuse and tragedy that surrounds prostitutes and prostitution stems from the fact that so many people—policemen, pimps—make themselves indispensable for a prostitute to scrounge a living; remove these people and at the very least the prostitute could reap the benefits of her earnin

FROM WIKIPEDIA:


Prostitution in the Philippines is illegal. It is a serious crime with penalties ranging up to life imprisonment for those involved in trafficking. It is covered by the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act. Prostitution is sometimes illegally available through brothels (also known as casa), bars, karaoke bars (also known as KTVs), massage parlors, street walkers and escort services.

There are an estimated 800,000 women working as prostitutes in the Philippines, with up to half of them believed to be underage.

Prostitution in various regions

Prostitution caters to local customers and foreigners . Media attention tends to focus on those areas catering to sex tourism, primarily through bars staffed by bargirls. Cities where there is a high incidence of prostitution are Angeles, Olongapo, Subic Bay and Pasay City , with the customers usually foreign businessmen from East Asian and Western nations.

Prostitution in Olongapo City and Angeles City was highly prominent during the time of the U.S. military bases called Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Base, respectively. When Mount Pinatubo, a volcano, erupted in 1991, it destroyed most of Clark Air Base and the US closed it down in 1992.

Most of the associated prostitution trade closed with it, but when the mayor of Manila, Alfredo Lim, closed down the sex industry area of Ermita in Manila during his first term, many of the businesses moved to Angeles, finding a new customer base among sex tourists.

Other tourist areas such as Cebu have also developed a high profile prostitution industry.

Violence and coercion against prostitutes

For information about Human Trafficking and Child Prostitution in the Philippines please see Human trafficking in the Philippines

Women and children involved in prostitution are vulnerable to rape, murder, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Surveys of women working as masseuses indicated that 34 percent of them explained their choice of work as necessary to support poor parents, 8 percent to support siblings and 28 percent to support husbands or boyfriends. More than 20 percent said the job was well paid, but only 2 percent said it was easy work and only 2 percent claimed to enjoy the work.

Over a third reported that they had been subject to violence or harassment, most commonly from the police, but also from city officials and gangsters.

A survey conducted by the International Labor Organization revealed that in the experience of most of the women surveyed, prostitution is one of the most alienating forms of labor. Over 50 percent of the women surveyed in Philippine massage parlors said they carried out their work “with a heavy heart,” and 20 percent said they were “conscience-stricken because they still considered sex with customers a sin.” Interviews with Philippine bar girls revealed that more than half of them felt “nothing” when they had sex with a client, the remainder said the transactions saddened them.

from BASANG PANAGINIP


Why I think it will not push through:


The Philippines is a moderate conservative country, neither too conservative (some Arab Muslims country where prostitution penalty is death), nor too liberal (Netherlands). This moderate conservatism plays an intricate role on the flesh exchange. Unlike many countries where prostitution is legal, the Philippines is by rule of majority, a Catholic nation.


Mystery. Part of what makes prostitution, so alluring, is its covert aspect. There is a thrill, when something is done in secret - this is a basic human nature. Legalizing prostitution will take away the mystique of it - what used to be sordid fantasy is now a cold business transaction.


Cost. With legal prostitution, many incurring expense will be added – VAT, income tax, club tax, advertisement, etc. Add to this the forming of a government body that will monitor this industry, and prices skyrockets. Its basic economics, prices goes up, demand goes down. In a third world country like us, legalizing prostitution will kill prostitution. And with the Catholic-backed government, programs that will subsidize the disenfranchise prostitutes who lost their jobs will be minimal, if at all.


Red tape and the usual corruption of our government. Let’s face it: even without a regulating government body on prostitution, the government is by default a regulator. And who execute the laws? Yep, the kotongs. There’s nothing worst than a prostitute working for a bureaucratic police.


Distinction between free choice and forced (without consent) prostitution. How can you distinguish one from the other? I’ve heard of stories like a Filipina maid working in a Hong Kong being sold to a Russian mob who specializes in pimping white slaves. Then there are those who have to fill the sales quotas of an abusive pimp.


Elevation of women’s status? Is prostitution a patriarchal scheme, to keep women in line?




Why I think it should push through:


Will legalizing promote human rights and empower women?



Barring red tape, and the usual corruption, a budget from the government will curb the white slavery more, and will minimize child pornography and minor-age trading.Instead of a multi-tasking agency (e.g. NBI), a branch of government with just this one task of monitoring the prostitute scenario, will have more resources (finance, time, manpower) allotted.


There are some feminist who think legalizing prostitution will protect the prostitutes from abuse – this is the part where I’m 50/50. I am not a lawyer but from what I know of the Revised Penal Code, the most that you can charge a prostitute is vagrancy. So I partly agree but only to an extent - if only to prosecute the extortionist (policemen, pimps) and the prostitute beaters (unless one is into deliberate sado-masochism).The prostitutes together with their Pinoy patrons should not be punished, but extortionist should be.


The prostitute getting her full worth. With the pimp out of the scene, the middle man expense will be redirected to the woman. In so doing, should a Pinay decide to trade her flesh, this measure will make sure that she gets the body and the fruits of her labor.


Another contradicting statement of mine on coercion (free or forced?): In capitalism, choices are limited. A smart card dispensing MRT civil service teller with just enough suweldo to get his kids and wife through the month has as much choice as the elementary graduate only prostitute who supports her ailing parents.


It helps curb the spreading of health risks - with the government issuing a mandatory health check and sex education, together with a check on the brothel or apartment building for fire and construction hazards


Demand and unique needs of patrons.Why do men subscribe to prostitutes when they can get sex for free with a steady girlfriend/wife or a one night-stand? Read my previous article entitled Kuwentong Prosti Exhibit A on why.


Symbol of Progress. If, and that is a big IF, ever our law allows prostitute to do their business without fear of extortion, then our country has indeed transformed from a conservative society to a more progressive nation. Prostitution will then shift from a moral question (it is a vice, evil?) to a humanist question (does it exploit women or like any other is it trabaho lang?).



If our country ever reach this stage, Camille Paglia statement will then be true:


"Prostitution is not just a service industry, mopping up the overflow of male demand, which always exceeds female supply. Prostitution testifies to the amoral power struggle of sex, which religion has never been able to stop."




9 comments:

1.
Ella (21 October, 2005 12:14)

There is something inherently wrong in legalizing prostitution, yet it is allowed in such countries as the U.S. In Las Vegas, for example, pimps can openly “sell” their ladies in public through the use of flyers and magazine advertisements. Even some hotels offer women via closed-circuit ads.

Isn’t this dehumanizing?

While most prostitutes are women, it is no longer unusual to hear of male prostitutes, or call boys as they are called here in the Philippines.

One question to ask: At what point do we stop? If we allow adult men and women to become prostitutes, does this automatically exclude minors? I think not. Even the definition of minors changes from country to country. Is it 21? 18? Or even 16? This is the age when driver’s licenses are granted in some countries.

Also, if we allow prostitution, can we limit the acts that are committed? If it’s plain sexual intercourse, fine. But this can lead to role playing. Then light forms of S&M. then who knows where?

Then there’s the issue of same-sex encounters. This way, we also legalize homosexuality, don’t we? And if we legalize homosexuality, then what follows? How about man-boy encounters? How about orgies? Fine with everyone?

Will bestiality be next?

Don’t get me wrong. Prostitution will exist in any society, rich or poor. And men will look for sex, paid or free, at every opportunity they get.

Is there a solution? My answer is no. It’s called the oldest profession, isn’t it? This means it’s been around since the beginning of time, and will be around long after all of us are dead and gone.This may seem silly, but perhaps modern technology can be a solution. Virtual sex can be a legal option. Orgasms are all in the mind, right? And at some point in the future, robot prostitutes. This isn’t as stupid as it sounds. Robotics is moving at a faster pace than we can imagine.

Sorry, sir bp, napahaba. Got carried away hehehe
slim whale (21 October, 2005 12:20)

i am for the legalization of prostitution if only to regulate the industry and to give them social security. it may also help curb sexually transmitted diseases if they put in place a mandatory medical check up for each sex worker.

what needs to be addressed, i believe, is teenage prostitution. these kids peddle their flesh not because they have to but because it can afford them extra luxuries like buying the latest cell phone model or an iPod. And they actually enjoy it. they don't need middlemen to do this.

also, not all sex workers are women. male prostitution is also rampant. not to mention transgendered individuals or transvestites who also ply the streets to sell their wares. these various sectors have different issues that need to be addressed.
basangpanaginip (21 October, 2005 13:46)

ella,

yes it's a domino effect. that's why I've written IF ever...

okay lang kahit mahaba, masaya nga eh. salamat sa pag-comment.

------------------------------

slim whale,

about the teenage, male and gay prostitutes, I think that needs a separate topic, hmmm... perhaps Exhibit C & D?

maraming salamat sa muling pagbisita.
Buwayahman (12 December, 2005 16:32)

In the Philippines, there is very very very very very little chance that prostitution will be legalized. The main reason is because Philippines is predominantly a Catholic country, and the role the church plays is a very strong role. Philippines is a country where the church played an important part in "people power."

If prostitution is to be legalized, the first thing that should happen is a clear separation between church and state. And the only way to achieve this is for a strong leader to tell the church to "mind their own business." Until that happens, prostitution will never be legalized.

And the number one reason why prostituion should be legalized? I am surprised you did not mention it. It is not because of health (MPs and KTVs already provide for health provisions) or child prostituion (as this is already clearly illegal by law), but for TAXES.

Now conservative people will argue. "This is immoral!" they will chant. But legalities have nothing to do with morals. Being legal does not necessarily mean that it is moral, it just means that it is allowed.
Michael (12 December, 2005 17:27)

Uy, Buwayahman, I'm glad you've commented on this topic. If there is a person who knows this topic it is you.

Taxes (by the way I've mention it), as in any business, can go both ways. The trickling effect of taxes, for me as I've written it in the above post, would be the dwindling of poorer customer base.

This could of course go the other way, as you've mentioned. More taxes, more support from government, in the long run lesser cost (or not, with the current state of kotongs?).