As a developing country, the Philippines is vulnerable to human trafficking.

Problems connected with poverty force most Filipinos to seek jobs outside the country, forming a culture of migration that contributes to human trafficking.

A 2015 report by the Philippine Statistics Agency show that 26.3 percent of Filipinos live below the poverty line which fuels the need to look for better opportunities which makes them more vulnerable to human trafficking.

Atty. Darlene Pajarito, executive director of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, explains that there are really no willing victims of human trafficking since victims agree to job opportunity presented to them but not the looming exploitation.

“The consent here in human trafficking is not the consent in the real sense, it’s what we call vitiated consent because this consent is tainted with violence or deception,” she said.

Know more about human trafficking in “End Human Trafficking,” an ANC special. --End Human Trafficking, 02 December 2016