Officials of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) said that “advocates will show their strength, unity and commitment to fight human trafficking by conducting a Freedom March to be participated in by the Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF), CIAC, the DMIA Task Force for Migrant Protection and Trafficking in Person and the Ing Makababaying Aksyon (IMA) Foundation”. The march will start at
“The march will articulate the battle cries against human trafficking and encourage others to join the war to eliminate this escalating social problem,” said CIAC president and chief executive officer Victor Jose Luciano.
The highlight of the march, however, would be a concert dubbed as MTV EXIT which stands for “End Exploitation and Trafficking”, to be staged at the SM City mall by MTV Philippines, CIAC, VFF, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the DMIA’s Task Force for Migrant Protection and Trafficking of Persons. It will start at about 6 p.m. after the march.
The MTV EXIT campaign is an award-winning multimedia initiative against human trafficking and exploitation. Launched in Europe in 2004 in partnership with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the campaign expanded across
The concert slated here, featuring the bands Sponge Cola and Sugarfree which are two of the most popular artists in the music industry, is the second of four free concerts across the
The concert series kicked-off in May at the SM Mall of Asia concert grounds with over 30,000 supporters. Two more concerts are slated to be held on October 15 in
Human trafficking is defined by the United Nations as “the recruitment, transportation and receipt of a person for sexual or economical exploitation by force, fraud, coercion or deception” in order to make a profit.
The UN estimates that at any one time, there are 2.5 million trafficking victims in the world, with the majority of these victims in
To date, MTV has produced many MTV documentaries and other programming on trafficking, including “Traffic: An MTV EXIT Special” presented by Lucy Liu; “Inhuman Traffic” presented by Angelina Jolie; over a dozen localized language versions presented by Asian celebrities; short films; public service announcements; and animation.
MTV EXIT has also established partnerships with 100 non-government organizations, distributed thousands of anti-trafficking brochures in over 25 languages and reached out to millions of young people through anti-trafficking messages at concerts and music festivals featuring artists R.E.M., Radiohead, The White Stripes, The Hives, Thievery Corporation, and hundreds of other international and local artists.
Visayan Forum Foundation Inc. is a non-government organization established in 1991. It is at the forefront of the War against Human Trafficking campaign launched in August 2008.
The organization works for the protection and justice of trafficked women and children and the domestic workers. It operates halfway houses in seaports and airports. Together with its multi-sectoral partners, the organization provides assistance to women and children in trafficking situation such as legal assistance and psychological aid through counseling and life skills training to trafficking victims and survivors.
