2016 found that 8 out of 10 children are vulnerable to being victims of online sexual abuse or bullying.13 Poverty, natural disasters, and insurgencies in many rural areas are considered push factors that make children and women vulnerable to be subjected to human trafficking. 14 Based on the latest data, poverty incidence in the Visayas is pegged at 15.2% among families and 20.2% among the population.15 Eastern Samar has the highest poverty incidence (40.9) among the provinces in the Visayas, followed by Northern Samar (27.6) and Samar (Western Samar) provinces (22.2). Compared to its preceding year, unemployment and underemployment rates significantly increased in the three regions located in the Visayas in the year 2020. Central Visayas has the highest unemployment rate at 16.7% while Eastern Visayas has a greater underemployment rate, pegged at 21.8%. 16 In the case of Cebu City, Cecilia Flores-Obenda writes that the city has become a convenient jump-off point to and from Luzon, Mindanao, the rest of the country, and the different parts of the world, making such easy connectivity as very conducive as the point of entry and exit for human illegal transshipment. As a regional hub with an international airport and numerous seaports, Cebu province has been capitalized as the transit point by human traffickers to transport their victims to offshore destinations. 17 Cebu welcomed a recorded number of 1,414,048 tourists in 2020, mostly domestic tourists (906,955), followed by non-Philippine residents (504,439) and more than 2,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).18 Cebu is no stranger to cases of trafficking. In March 2021, at least four women pleaded guilty to online sexual exploitation of children in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.19 Recently, a foreigner arrested in Compostela town, Cebu was arrested for seven counts of child prostitution and eight counts of violation of the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act last May 2021.20 13 OSEC: A Modern Face of Human Trafficking. World Hope International. Available at: https://www.worldhope.org/osec-a-modern-face-of-human-trafficking/ 14 International Justice Mission. (2010). Demonstrating the effectiveness of enforcing anti-trafficking law: Results and evaluation. Project Terminal Report of 2010 15 2018 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) 16 Philippine Statistics Authority, Annual Labor and Employment Estimates 2016, 2017 and 2018, and 2019 and 2020 17 Flores-Oebanda, C. (2011). A staunch advocate against human trafficking. Asian Journal. Retrieved from http://www.asianjournal.com 18 2020 Central Visayas January-December Regional Distribution of Travelers (Final Report) 19 Moaje, Marita. (2021). 4 convicted for online sexual exploitation of 11 kids in Cebu. Philippine News Agency. Available at: https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1132331 20 Mascardo, Iris Hazel. (2021). Foreigner held for child prostitution, human trafficking. The Philippine Star. Available at: https://www.philstar.com/nation/2021/05/20/2099470/foreigner-held-child-prostitutionhuman-trafficking 41