Bar with a lodging house of four rooms which is located beside their quarter. The owner or
the manager will talk to the male customers regarding payment and these girls will go directly
to the room and wait for the customer if the negotiation is successful. These girls gave sexual
services even during day time and they are not allowed to go outside without the recruiter
accompanying them who happen to work also in the same bar. The client had experienced
being paid with a prohibited drugs in exchange of sexual services and this was allowed by the
management of the bar. She also observed that even the manager and some of the girls are
using drugs which are given by customers who are identified as drug dealers.
The child also experienced having sex with customer while one of the workers in the bar took
video record behind closed doors. According to Ara, she stayed there for more than a year
and endured the exploitation because she need to help her family. She was able to go back
to Davao City because the owner and the manager heard the news that there will be raid to
be conducted in the area because the local government had learned that there are minors
working in the bars. The owner immediately instructed all the minors to go back to their
homes or to the place where they came from.
Ara went back in Tibal-og last April 2015 to get her blue card (records of her pap-smear
checkup) and according to Ara the owner asked her to work again. She refused the offer
because she is scared of thinking that the same exploitation will happen to her. On June 6,
2015 another incident of trafficking happened to Ara. She wished to continue with her studies
as a college student but since her family is not capable to support her nor her relatives, she
decided to go back to Tibal-og when a recruiter enticed her to work again in a bar. For the
second time Ara found herself in the same bar and with same owner. She said that the owner
treated her well at first and eventually, the same exploitation happened to her. The owner
constantly sold her to male customers for her service without any let-up. She was sold at
P300 for three hours and the same amount for an extension. The owner also instructed the
girls that they are not allowed to use other lodging inn except the one owned by the bar
owner and they need to convince their customers to follow it. The girls should do do it twice
a week so they will be allowed to go out with customers. Even if Ara wanted to escape from
the bar, they are being monitored by the owner. Every outing (external transaction) requested
by customers were being monitored by the management and considerable amount ranging
200-500 pesos should be paid to the management in every transaction. There were times that
“Nice” (pimp) convinced and forced Ara to have sex in exchange of drugs with the customer
for she in return would also benefit from the drugs, a separate pay for the pimps.
There were other minors in the bar named a “Carla” and “May-may” both 16 years old.
Sometimes, especially weekends, the daughters of the owner who were also minors (grade 7
and grade 4) were assigned to be the cashier of the said bar and were also exposed with that
type of setting. Ara was in that predicament and endured the situation for almost 5 months
and on October 2015 she decided to go home since she was being maltreated verbally and
economically by the owner and their former recruiter “Nice”. When she arrived in Davao City
35
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