As part of the child-sensitive effort in handling the FGD, an orientation was made before the discussions. The respondents voluntarily signed consent forms on their participation in the FGD. To avoid respondents from revisiting their experience before their rescue, their case profiles were made by summarizing pieces of information found on their respective case files. On the other hand, two (2) female respondents are trafficking survivors and clients of ATIKHA and Bidlisiw Foundation, both of which are non-government organizations based in Iloilo. An orientation similar to the Cebu group was also conducted. Lastly, the third FGD was conducted to elicit responses and insights from frontline staff members of the Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB) who have worked with trafficking cases for a significant number of years. IV. Limitations of the Research: Data gathered from the agencies on some indicators related to trafficking in persons is limited due to strict protocols in asking for data, time and movement concerns. Most of the data from online sources are at national level not segregated by region. Also, based on online articles, some data available in one region may not be available in another region and some data are available in one year but not the other years. The trafficking survivors respondents were limited to Cebu and Iloilo, most were clients of CLB and minors when they were rescued. CLB was not able to interview survivors from other parts of the Visayas due to limited resources. The focused group discussion (FGD) on the concerns related to trafficking cases was limited to CLB staff. Thus, being a legal advocacy NGO, the focus is mostly on the legal aspect such as rescue and prosecution. V. Literature Review The Philippines continues to retain its Tier 1 status based on the 2021 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report by the United States Department of State,9 which means that the Philippine government fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking through the sustained efforts in prosecuting more traffickers; charging of defendants who have used child soldiers; sentencing of the majority of convicted trafficker; adding more prosecutors and staff to anti-trafficking task forces and coordination bodies; the opening of a specialized shelter and one-stop service center; and assisting more than 1,000 victims. 9 Available at: https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-trafficking-in-persons-report/ 39