The Commission’s work on trafficking of women and girls As Gender Ombud, and part of the Commission’s Human Rights promotion and policy work, the Commission has been continuously conducting capacity building and advocacy campaigns against trafficking of women and girls. Legal assistance and other protection services are also available in cases where cases are filed with the Commission. Recognizing however, the remaining gap in the Commission’s work on trafficking, focus group discussions or key informant interviews were conducted in 2020 to surface the issues of trafficking and violence in fisherfolk communities. The focus on fisherfolks communities sprang from reports from CSOs documenting instances of ‘akyat barko’ or other forms of prostitution due to poverty, most especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have then noted the work of Talikala, an NGO based in Davao City as they have documented different forms of prostitution among girl children in fishing communities. They described how ‘akyat barko’ as a system works -when a ship docks, girls together with the pimps, ride “pump boats” to meet the customers in the cabin. According to Talikala, this type of work is usually a “packaged deal”, that is, the price paid for by the customer includes doing the laundry, cooking, aside from the sexual service given.6 They also documented the ‘sistemang palit’ or barter among girl children in places near the coastal areas – in this case, sexual service is given in exchange for fish.7 Despite the conduct of FGDs and KIIs in these areas, data on trafficking remain very minimal. This is a persistent gap in the Commission’s work as Gender Ombud. In 2021, seeking to address the continuing absence of grounded data on trafficking of women and girls, the Commission, through the Gender Equality and Women’s Human Rights Center (GEWHRC) partnered with CSOs working in the area of trafficking on women and girls for a joint campaign in preventing trafficking of women and girls. The joint campaign engaged three CSOs, one from Luzon, one from Visayas and one from Mindanao. The partner worked with the Center in (1) drafting a localized situationer of trafficking of women and girls including case studies highlighting gaps and continuing challenges; and (2) conducting advocacy campaigns preventing trafficking of women and girls, including the conduct of a National Consultation on Trafficking of Women and Girls. The partnership responded to the need to surface and make visible the root causes of trafficking, the gaps in implementation as seen in the lived experiences of women and girls, and the need to work towards addressing these gaps through the strengthening of referral mechanisms. It had the following objectives: Objectives: 1. To expand the Commission’s partners in the campaign to prevent trafficking of women and girls; 2. To develop, with CSO partners, localized situationers and cases studies on trafficking of women and girls; 6 Arcilla, N. The Filipino Children in Prostitution; A Worst kind of Child Labor. 2001. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---ilomanila/documents/publication/wcms_437078.pdf 7 Arcilla, note 2 5