Philippines: Child pornography reaps US$1 billion

Senator says Philippine child porn is US$1 billion ...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- The Philippines is the world's fourth-biggest producer of child pornography, and the US$1 billion (Ç764.5 million) industry is growing rapidly, a senator said Wednesday.   "This is getting bigger," Senator Jamby Madrigal said during a Senate hearing on the problem. "In three years, we could be No. 1."

Madrigal is pushing for legislation that would ban possession of child pornographic materials in the Philippines, which she said is the fourth biggest producer of illicit videos, magazines and internet content.

Madrigal's comments came at a hearing to help draft the bill. She did not elaborate on the extent of the proposed ban. 

Currently, Filipino law protects children against abuse, exploitation and discrimination, but there is no specific law against child pornography.

Madrigal, who heads the Senate committee on youth, women and family relations, showed pictures and video of a teenage Filipino girl having sexual intercourse with an elderly foreigner, saying she wanted the public to see the "horrors of child porn."

Anti-child porn activist Alex Ramos said the materials were seized from several foreigners and their Filipino accomplices arrested in police raids in the northern Philippines last year.

Among those arrested were a Belgian and two American men, Ramos said. Ramos said the number of victims, driven to pornography by poverty, has grown steadily. At least 100 girls, mostly in their teens, were rescued from porn syndicates last year alone, he said, adding that the actual number could be much bigger.

"What we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg," Ramos said. "We are one of the countries that is the favorite destination of sex tourism ... and one of the byproducts of sex tourism is the production and distribution of child porn materials."

He said the syndicates pay Filipino girls 1,000 pesos (US$17.85, Ç13.65) to 3,000 pesos (US$53.57, Ç40.93) a week. The Internet has made it faster and easier to distribute porn, he said, adding that most of the clients of "Internet sex houses" in the Philippines are middle-aged men from the United States and Europe.

Copyright © 2005 Associated Press

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