Senate Chief Calls for Probe into Mail-order Bride Racket

4 September 2007

By Barbara Mae Dacanay

Manila: About half-a-million Filipino women leave as mail-order brides every year, making them vulnerable as soon as they arrive abroad to meet their online husbands for the first time, Senate President Manuel Villar observed.

"There is a need to investigate a report which said that 300,000 to 500,000 Filipinas leave the country every year as mail-order brides," said Villar moving a resolution asking the Senate committee on youth, women, and family relations to conduct an inquiry into the condition of such women.

"We have to look into violations of the law by those recruiting mail-order brides from the Philippines," said Villar.

Villar came out with a long list of websites which, he said, were operated by underground syndicates to lure and recruit mail-order brides from the country. "Several internet sites openly market Filipino women as mail-order brides.

"For example, one website has been luring Filipinas to write letters of introduction to men in the United States and Europe who are looking for girl friends and wives. The website charges $5 (Dh18.37) per transaction," said Villar.

Pen pals

Another website had published pictures of Filipinas seeking pen pals from the US and Europe, claiming it was the "perfect avenue to romance," and advertising its "good matchmaker" record, he said.

Yet another website featured a long list of beautiful and brainy women with post-graduatedegrees and doctorates, Villar said.

Well-educated Filipinas looking for husbands could improve their financial prospects by simply opting for matrimonial alliances abroad, a website allegedly based in northern Luzon suggested.

Villar pointed out that mail-order bride services were considered akin to sex-trafficking and sexual exploitation in several countries besides the Philippines. Women trapped in such relationships were exposed to sexually transmitted or other infectious diseases, and were vulnerable to beatings, sexual abuse, and humiliation, he added.

Various non-governmental agencies have accused the Philippines of abetting the trafficking of women and children. Adoptions by westerners, globalisation, aggressive tourism campaigns, massive labour export, presence of US and other foreign servicemen during joint war games, the prevalence of online pornography and chat rooms, porous borders, and poverty have all been cited as means of exploitation.

A Philippine law, enacted on June 13, 1990, says it is unlawful to solicit Filipino women for marriage to foreign nationals on a mail-order basis.

The law warns against advertisements, publications, the printing or distribution of brochures, fliers and other propaganda material, to lure women into such rackets.