REPUBLIC ACT NUMBER 11862

 

Republic Act Number 11862

An act strengthening the policies on anti-trafficking in persons, providing penalties for its violations, and appropriating funds therefor, amending for the purpose republic act no. 9208, as amended, otherwise known as the "anti-trafficking in person act of 2003", and other special laws

(Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons [ATIP] of 2022)

 

I. State Policy

            Section 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is hereby declared that the State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees the respect of individual rights.  In pursuit of this policy, the State shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures and development of programs that will promote human dignity, protect the people from any threat or violence and exploitation, eliminate trafficking in persons, and mitigate pressures for involuntary migration and servitude of persons, not to support trafficked person but more importantly, to ensure their recovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration into the mainstream of society in a manner that is culturally-responsive, gender-and-age appropriate, and disability-exclusive.

            It shall be a State policy to recognize the equal and inalienable rights and inherent human dignity of all members of the human family, as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights, United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Woman, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols to which the Philippine is a party, United Nations Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families, United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime Including its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Person, Especially Women and Children, International Labor Organization Convention No. 182 concerning the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, and the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others and all other relevant and universally accepted human rights instruments and other international conventions to which the Philippines is a party.  In All actions concerning children, their best interests shall be the paramount consideration."

 

 

 

II. Salient Features

            Trafficking in Persons - refers to the recruitment, obtaining, hiring, providing, offering, transportation, transfer, maintaining, harboring, or receipt of persons with or without the victim's consent or knowledge, within or across national borders by means of threat or use of force, or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person, or, the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation which includes at a minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of others or the engagement of others for the production or distribution, or both, of materials that depict child sexual abuse or exploitation, or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal or sale of organs.

            The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, adoption or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation or when the adoption is induced by any form of consideration for exploitative purposes, shall also be considered as "trafficking in persons" even if it does not involve any of the means set forth in the preceding paragraph. [Section 3(a)]

 

            Sexual Exploitation – refers to any means of actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes or lewd designs, including profiting monetarily, socially, or politically from the sexual exploitation of another, regardless of whether or not consent was given. [Section 3(h)]

 

            Child Laundering - refers to an act of stealing and selling a child to adopting parents under false pretenses and using schemes such as falsifying the child's details or manipulating the child's origins to make the child appear an orphan or foundling. [Section 3(l)]

 

            Section 4. Acts of Trafficking in Persons - It shall be unlawful for any person, natural or juridical, to commit by means of a threat, or use of force, or other forms of coercion, or through abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position, or through taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person, or by giving or receiving of payment or benefit to obtain the consent of a person having control over another person, any of the following acts:

            (a) To recruit, obtain, hire, provide, offer, or transport, transfer, maintain, harbor, or receive a person by means, including, those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment or training or apprenticeship, for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual abuse or exploitation, production, creation, or distribution of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Material (CSAEM) or Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude, or debt bondage;

            (b) To introduce or match for money, profit, or material, economic or other consideration, any person, or, as provided for under Republic Act. 10906 or the Anti-Mail Order Spouse Act, any Filipino to a foreign national, for marriage for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or trading him/her to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

            (g) To adopt or facilitate the adoption of persons with or without consideration for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage, or to facilitate illegal child adoptions or child-laundering, or for other exploitative purposes;

            (h) To recruit, hire, adopt, transport, transfer, obtain, harbor, maintain, provide, offer, receive, or abduct a person, for the purpose of removal or sale of organs of said person;

            (i) To recruit, transport, transfer, obtain, harbor, maintain, provide, offer, hire, receive, or adopt a child to engage in armed activities or participate in activities in the context of an armed conflict in the Philippines or abroad;

            (j) To recruit, transport, transfer, obtain, harbor, maintain, provide, offer, hire, or receive a person by means defined in Section 3 of this Act for the purposes of forced labor, slavery, debt bondage and involuntary servitude, including a scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person either:

            (1) To believe that if the person did not perform such labor or services, he or she or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or

            (2) To abuse or threaten the use of law or the legal processes;

 

Section 5. Acts that Promote Trafficking in Persons - The following acts which promote or facilitate trafficking in persons shall be unlawful:

            (a) To knowingly lease or sublease, use, or allow to be used any house, building, tourism enterprise, or any similar establishment; or any vehicle or carrier by land, sea, and air; or any of their computer system or computer hardware, other computer-related devices, or any of their digital platform and application, for the purpose of promoting trafficking in persons;

            (b) To produce, print and issue, or distribute unissued, tampered, or fake passports, birth certificates, affidavits or delayed registrations of births, foundling certificates, travel clearances, counseling certificates, registration stickers, overseas employment certificates or other certificates of any government agency which issues these certificates, decals, and such other markers as proof of compliance with government regulatory and pre-departure requirements for the purpose of promoting trafficking in persons;

            (e) To facilitate, assist, or help in the exit and entry of persons from/to the country at international and local airports, territorial boundaries and seaports, knowing they are not in possession of required travel documents, or are in possession of tampered, fake, or fraudulently acquired travel documents, for the purpose of promoting trafficking in persons;

            (k) For internet intermediaries to knowingly or by gross negligence allow their internet infrastructure to be used for the purpose of promoting trafficking in persons;

            (l) For internet cafes, kiosks, and hotspots, including establishments offering Wi-Fi access services to the public, to knowingly or by gross negligence allow their facilitates to be used for the purposed of promoting trafficking in persons;

 

            Section 6. Qualified Trafficking in Persons. - Violations of Section 4 of this Act shall be considered as qualified trafficking:

            (a) When the trafficked person is a child...

            (h) When the offender, commits one or more acts of trafficking under Section 4 over a period of at least 60 days, whether those days are continuous or not;

            (i) When the offender, or through another directs or manages the actions of a victim in carrying out the exploitative purposes of trafficking;

            (j) When the crime is committed during crises, disaster, public health concern, pandemic, a humanitarian conflict, or emergency situation, or when the trafficked person is a survivor of a disaster or a human-induced conflict;

            (k) When the trafficked person belongs to an indigenous community or religious minority and is considered a member of the same;

            (l) When the trafficked person is a person with disability (PWD);

            (m) When the crime has resulted in pregnancy;

            (n) When the trafficked person suffered mental and emotional disorder as a result of being victim of trafficking; or

            (o) When the act is committed by or through the use of ICT or any computer system."

 

 

 

 

III. Insights & Recommendations

 

            Human dignity and human rights are fundamental essence of being a free person which the State values and protects.  In our modern era of digital age; although the old forms of slavery had been eradicated, but said evil doing breed and evolved into new and modern form of slavery.  As such; our government enacted Republic Act No. 11862 to expand the blanket of protection not only in the realms of actual milieu but also in the field of computer and digital world.

                        In Expanded ATIP Law of 2022; it underscore the acts of trafficking in person by recruiting, hiring, providing, offering, transporting, maintaining or receiving a person for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual abuse or exploitation, production, creation, or distribution of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Material (CSAEM) or Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), or debt bondage.  These CSAEM and CSAM include not only actual hardware use to perpetrate the crime, but also to the digital files, internet sites, and other digital applications and programs that are used as medium to traffic person.

            Also the new law provides for the crime of acts that promote trafficking in persons which include "to knowingly lease or sublease, use, or allow to be used any house, building, tourism enterprise, or any similar establishment; or any vehicle or carrier by land, sea, and air; or any of their computer system or computer hardware, other computer-related devices, or any of their digital platform and application, for the purpose of promoting trafficking in persons among others.

            As indicated above; the crime of trafficking in person already evolved not just in the actual context of real life but also in the digital world where the medium of interaction and trafficking activities is the internet.  Computer, net cafes and other computer service oriented business had been integrated into the law in order to make some actions regarding the illegality of the activities happen in their store or computer internet shops; failure to report to proper authorities constitute a crime that promote trafficking in persons which is punishable under expanded ATIP law of 2022.

                        Also Section 6 of Expanded ATIP Law of 2022 highlighted the crime of Qualified Trafficking in Persons which has a higher penalty and punishment compare to that of violation committed in Section 4 of the said law.  Paragraph K of Section 6 thereof provides "when the trafficked person belongs to an indigenous community or religious minority and is considered a member of the same."

            The law give importance to the person belong to an indigenous community or religious minority because they are considered vulnerable in the evolved-crime of trafficking of persons by the use of gadget and internet in trafficking them through the world of digital technology.

            This law is right on time; as such this is the response of the evolving crime related situation that deals with trafficking persons through the use of technology and internet.