The Philippines is a well-known island tourist destination country. We can often see such a picture, the blue sky reflects the clear sea, on the white sand, a couple of "loving" couple swimming together. The men are mostly white, while the women are mostly local Filipino girls. Their relationship is naturally self-evident. They can be called lovers with a little embellishment, but their essence is still the relationship between prostitutes and clients.
It's hard to imagine that, so far, since 83 percent of the population is Catholic, it's still a country that doesn't allow divorce and abortion, or even premarital sex. However, the sexual industry chain in the Philippines has matured to a staggering point, and sometimes only a bottle of beer is needed, and some girls take the initiative to come to talk, or even three hundred pieces can be taken away overnight. According to statistics, the annual revenue of the sex industry in the Philippines can reach 400 million US dollars. This seemingly developed tourism industry has a lot of mysteries behind it.
This deformed industrial chain can be traced back to the wartime US military base, the United States and the Philippines are military alliances, influenced by asian patriarchal ideas, with the us military stationed in the Philippines, many local women have become the mistress of US military officers. When foreign invaders further deprived the Philippines economically and militarily, this deformed relationship became the infamous comfort women establishment. Today, driven by economic globalization, the sex industry is almost on the verge of becoming a pillar industry in the Philippines, and sex workers have become a commodity that is arbitrarily manipulated under this trade.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > Angel City in Hell</h1>
People who are familiar with the Philippines will naturally hear the famous name of Angel City. Angel City is not only close to the US military base, but also seaside, with beautiful coastal scenery. When the red light district of the capital Manila was renovated in the last century, Angel City became a new sex market, attracting a large number of tourists.
The sex workers in Angel City are the best in Southeast Asia, and many foreign tourists can know the various services of Angel City as long as they move their fingers and search through the Internet. Generally speaking, finding a sex worker in Angel City, plus drinking and other consumption, will cost about 7,000 Philippine pesos, that is, about 800 yuan. In some places where the grade is not too high, the price is even as low as 80 yuan. According to statistics, most of the tourists who come to Angel City are tourists from the United States, Australia, Europe, Asia (especially South Korea), because of the "good quality and low price" of Angel City, which is also known as "pornographic supermarket".
After World War II, the Philippines became an independent state and agreed to the establishment of a U.S. military base in Angel City. With the arrival of American soldiers, the sex industry in the area developed rapidly, and thanks to this, the population of Angel City began to increase rapidly. Since then, angel city's sexual services have flourished, and even earned the title of "Las Vegas in the Philippines". It is said that 50,000 of the 200,000 people in Angel City are engaged in the sex trade.
The industry in Angel City is well developed, but strictly speaking, it has broken Philippine law. However, because so many people are unemployed, many people are unable to find jobs and are forced to take up special occupations. In this regard, the Philippine government can only turn a blind eye, on the one hand, they continue to encourage the arrival and consumption of "tourists" from all over the world, on the other hand, they say to the girls, you must abide by the government's reproductive health plan.
As mentioned above, the Philippines not only prohibits premarital sex, but also opposes any contraceptive method, and under the influence of this social culture, parents will not spread sexual knowledge to their children, and sex education in schools is also secretive. In this context, the proliferation of the sex trade has made the Philippines' HIV infection rate one of the highest in Asia and even in the world.
Fearing HIV/ AIDS, clients are becoming more and more in demand for virgins. Virgins are young, clean, and unworldly, which leads to minors being particularly popular with their clients. Unable to have an abortion, sex workers had to give birth to a child and, if it was a daughter, teach her to do her old job in order to earn a living. According to the Philippine Association for the Protection of Minors, more than half of those involved in the sex trade are child prostitutes.
According to the in-depth investigation of Belgian journalist Bridge, the price of child prostitutes is very cheap, only 55 yuan to 207 yuan or so, you can buy a virgin, if there is a virgin certificate, the price will be higher. Even Bridge was astonished to find that the youngest child prostitute was only one year old, and some child prostitutes as young as 12 years old had become mother bustards, and at the age of flowers, they already knew how to make money and how to engage in underground prostitution, which was shocking.
Due to the high demand for child prostitutes, snakeheads will sell girls to bars and song halls in the name of seeking the welfare of girls, and once they enter the industry, it will be extremely difficult to get out of them for a lifetime. In the city of angels, women who have been trafficked can be seen everywhere.
But sometimes what is more frightening is far from these fierce and vicious bullies, many young prostitutes are sold into the kiln by their parents, they are like a commodity, a chip, and become a tool for parents to exchange money. Many young prostitutes think that this way of making money is normal and legal, without realizing that they are being sexually assaulted. Some young prostitutes will also set up their own portals after a few years, buying smaller girls to expand their customers.
The City of Angels, what a beautiful name, but surrounded by a hellish atmosphere. These sex workers are wrapped in countless hands, playing with them, pushing and shoving, gasping for life in the cracks.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > the pain of a mixed orphan</h1>
Walking the streets of the Philippines, you'll see a multitude of beautiful babies, all of blonde hybrids, wandering the streets in rags or begging along the streets with big shiny eyes.
In the city of angels, there are many such babies. The criminal sex trade has brought thousands of mixed-race children to the Philippines in just a few decades, and almost none of them have ever seen their biological father, and once born, they can only experience a life of poverty, repeating their mother's life.
Renting wives is very popular in the Philippines, and many older white people come to the Philippines to marry young girls. After a night of love, sex workers often find out they are pregnant as the client leaves.
Occasionally, well-meaning "fathers" will send mothers a small amount of living expenses, but almost no one will assume the obligation of raising children, assume the responsibility of fatherhood, and even some people will disappear without a trace when they hear that mothers are pregnant. For sex workers, this result can only be exchanged for a poorer life. A large number of mixed races have become a unique landscape of the Philippines.
With no stable income, they were crammed into a cramped room with their mother, struggling in the mud of poverty. Without a good education, sexual service is the only means by which these moms can earn a living. They can only leave their children at home and continue their previous work.
Not all the time it's the "peak season" of the sex trade, and when there are no guests, moms don't have an income and can't raise their children to go to school. What's more, these mothers will get pregnant again at work, making families who are already unable to make ends meet suffer again. Tragedy has been played out in all corners of the Philippines.
This long cycle of tragedy can only lead to worse social problems. Lacking paternal love, lack of education, lack of food and clothing, these children are at the bottom of society, but because of their motherhood, they have directly become marginal people in society. In such an environment, what can they do except follow their mother's old path?
There was once a documentary like this, Angels Fall: Special Children in the Philippines, which faithfully documented the lives of these mixed-race orphans and mothers. Many young children, with their unworldly eyes, introduce their fathers to the camera and humbly long to meet him, even if only one side.
The power of maternal love is great, and in the film, many mothers do their best to take care of and love their babies. Babies love their moms just as much, and almost everyone wants to be a teacher or doctor so they can save moms.
However, in such a harsh social environment, is it really right to bring your baby into this dirty world? There is no answer to this question, the mother has no choice, and the child is less or less. They can only take one step at a time and do their best to maintain their lives at this stage.
The innocent smiling faces of the children are incompatible with this environment of red and green wine and drunkenness, but how long can this innocence be maintained? The Philippines, a country where the sex trade is rife, has gradually become a huge cradle of mixed-race orphans, where they are incubated, raised, and borne the heavy price behind the prosperous industry.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > inferior Philippines</h1>
Few people may have seen the glory of the Philippines, but the vast majority of people know the backwardness of the Philippines.
According to the Asian Development Bank, more than 20 percent of the population in the Philippines is still below the world poverty line, with an average daily wage of less than $1.25.
In such extreme poverty, many Filipino boys have been operated on early and become "shemales", and many girls have become young prostitutes, and even for only $3, customers can get their hands on her. And all they do is just to be able to live today.
The large number of poor people has contributed to the prosperity of the sex industry. The Philippines has the largest number of sex workers in East Asia, and it is a cheap "back garden" in Europe and the United States.
Due to the long colonial rule of Spain and the United States, the history of the Philippines is almost blank. Most Filipinos speak fluent English, think that English is superior to their native language, look down on their country, and admire Western culture. Even the name of the country "Philippines" was determined by King Philip II of Spain.
In this case, customers in Europe, the Americas, and Australia are greatly welcomed by sex workers. It is said that a newborn with blue eyes is 10 times more expensive than a local baby.
A 58-year-old white man once said, "Southeast Asia is the Disneyland of retired men." Those who have lost in their own countries have become heroes and guests in such a poor and backward Third World country.
Foreign "tourists" listen to the tragic stories of these girls, generously donate $1,000 to them, and even can't give their wives a certain amount of material satisfaction, but here they will save a family, or even an entire village. Such a huge contrast will make customers feel that they are the embodiment of superheroes, coming to the human world to save the suffering.
Tourists prefer pureLy Asian women to mixed-race women, because they conform to the white people's established vision of Asian women, weak, docile, and small women, and they can only find a trace of dignity as a man here.
Once, the Philippines was once proud of the crowd, known as the "Four Little Tigers of Asia". However, the good times did not last long, and the financial storm hit the Philippines hard, and its former glory was only a flash in the pan. Since then, the Philippines has begun to decline rapidly, and the imitation of the American political system and the mutual calculations of politicians have led to an accelerated retreat. Similarly, the spread of corruption in politics has exacerbated polarization in the Philippines.
Many people living in extreme poverty can only choose to live in cemeteries, accompany the dead, and eat chicken bones left by others. A day's hard work can only earn 20 pesos, that is, 2 yuan. In this case, sex trading is the easiest and fastest way to make money.
Many sex workers even threaten to save themselves. Even if she were rescued, a woman who grew up in a slum without an id card, without education, without money, might not be able to integrate into normal society.
Since last year, the covid-19 pandemic that has swept the world has also made the Philippine economy worse, and even many well-known actresses have embarked on the road of prostitution in order to make money.
However, in the final analysis, if the Philippines itself is independent and self-reliant, people's living standards improve, increase investment in education, and no longer objectify women, then perhaps women's career choices will be more extensive, and sex work will no longer be the only way out.
It is just that such tragedies are still unfolding one after another, and perhaps only after decades, or even centuries of social structural change, can this kind of problem be truly solved. As an advertising slogan says: "There is no harm without buying and selling". I hope the world is more beautiful and less suffering.