Boracay is the summer capital of the Philippines. During the months of March, April, and May, the tiny island is deluged with Filipinos and foreigners, all looking for a good time in the white-sand beach. Why is it so popular? Because magazines and travel websites around the world have called it one of the best.
But some people are convinced that the large amount of traffic leads to a different kind of traffic: human trafficking. According to Nicole A., she was in Boracay when she and her mother saw a middle-aged white man walking hand-in-hand with a local girl who must have been eight years old. She then calls out the human trafficking industry in Boracay, and wonders why no one stops it.
According to Nicole:
Last night, coming home from dinner in Station 3, my mom noticed a middle-aged white guy walking hand-in-hand with a local girl who must’ve been about eight years old. I guess she took a few minutes to process what that meant because by the time she told me, “That guy’s a pedophile!”, we turned around and they were gone. A lot of scenarios go into your head: maybe he’s an adoptive relative, maybe he’s her adoptive father, but then you look around at what this place has become and you know that the optimistic explanations aren’t realistic. The question is, what’s anyone doing about anything? These native women and their children sprawled along the walkway begging alms. Thinking about it sours the Bora experience. Which is probably why people don’t much. We’re here to enjoy our vacation after all.
I have a feeling though that one day a tell-all book entitled “Your Paradise Was My Hell” will come out detailing the horrifying experience of a trafficked sex-slave on the Philippine island paradise of #Boracay and we’re all going to wonder what we were doing while all that was going on and what we could’ve done to stop it. More importantly, why didn’t we?
Have you seen incidents like this? Share your thoughts below.
