The sex trade continues in the Philippines
From Bulatlat by Dabet Castaneda
Prostitution was and still is a thriving "trade" in Olongapo City, where U.S. soldiers used to frequent the bars for their rest and recreation.
A teenage working girl has just woken for a 10am interview.
After washing her face with tap water, she broke into a sheepish smile and said, I am sorry, I just woke up. I slept late. The girl then took her mobile phone and started texting some messages. This fair-skinned, chinky-eyed young lass is Maya
(not her real name), an entertainer at a videoke bar along the streets of Subic in the province of Zambales.
“Ate” is Evelyn Marzan, an organizer of bar girls from a women’s organization, 'Organize Women', who assisted this
reporter for this interview.
Maya had no idea she was going to be interviewed and upon realizing it, her smile broke into a giggle. Are you a reporter? she asked. I also want to be a reporter like you. she said as her face turned
red. Don’t be shy , Evelyn told her. After a little prodding, Maya took her seat and was ready for this interview.
Although she insisted she is 19 years old, Maya’s lanky, underdeveloped body and mannerisms gave away her real
age. She said she was in third year high school when she stopped schooling this year. Evelyn later confirmed Maya is only 16. Evelyn also said she had met a 15-year old girl who just arrived in this bar last week.
In a separate interview, Buklod
president Alma Bulawan said the present generation of bar girls is aged 15-25 years old: Customers today want young girls, not like in our time when any age will do. Bulawan was a prostitute during the 1980s when what is known today as the Subic
Bay Freeport was still a U.S. military base.
The Philippine Senate voted against the extension of the U.S.-RP Military Bases Treaty when it expired in 1991. But the area continues to serve as a military station for U.S. warships after the
Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) was approved in 1998. During the five decades that the U.S. military base was in Subic and Olongapo City, the area surrounding the base had long strips of bars, which are actually brothel areas, where American servicemen
spend their “liberty,” a U.S. military term for rest and recreation. Prostitution became the most convenient job for women and children then, Bulawan said.
Provincial officials initiated a clean-up drive against prostitution after the
bases treaty was scrapped. In fact, the base area was converted into an industrial and recreation hub, which hosts multi-national corporations, hotels and casinos. But with or without the bases, Bulawan said, the sex trade never has stopped in Olongapo
and Subic, as it never did elsewhere. At present, there are about 3,000 Guest Relations Officer (GROs) in Olongapo alone, she added. During the time of the bases, she said, their number rose to about 16,000.
The biggest proof, Bulawan said, is
the girls’ health cards given out by the local government itself. Precy, a GRO in a videoke bar in Olongapo, said they are being checked by the city’s health center every week. We undergo pap smear she said. They are made to pay P30
per check up and are not allowed to work if they do not comply. The Customers also want to make sure. They want to see the health card first before sleeping with them, Bulawan said.
Since then, there have only been a few changes: sex trade
hubs in and out of the Freeport are now known as videoke bars and bar girls are now called GROs. She said videoke bars in this area offer three dance sets every night for their customers. During the first set, the girls would still be wearing clothes.
In the second set, they would be in their bikinis. On the third, they go all the way, meaning they dance in the nude , Evelyn said.
These girls, Evelyn said, get drunk or even take drugs before doing the dance shows. They won’t have
the courage to dance nude in front of people if they are not drunk or stoned, she said.
Maya started working in the bar only last September when her father sent her there: H e wants me to marry an American, she said. Maya said she had
a cousin who also worked as a GRO here and was able to marry an American serviceman who was a customer at the bar.
But money never comes easy for Maya. She said she is paid a measly P100 a night as a dancer. At first, it was enough to “just
dance and drink.” She said they are encouraged to drink a lot because they get a commission in every order. Girls are given P40 for a drink that costs P80 and P50 for a P120 drink. Back then, I would not agree to be taken out. That’s
because I was still a virgin when I arrived here, she said.
To take the girl out for sex, a customer has to pay a bar fine, Evelyn explained. After a few weeks, Maya finally agreed to go out with a customer. To earn more she said.
But her father’s American dream could not materialize, she said while smiling. I am afraid of Americans. You know why referring to the belief that Americans have a large penis. And I do not understand English . Maya said her
customers were mostly Filipinos, Chinese and Taiwanese who come to Subic to gamble at the casinos.
These customers pay a bar fine of P1,200 but Maya said only P550 is given to the girls, the rest going to the bar. Not knowing anybody in Subic,
Maya decided to live with the other GROs. There are seven of them staying in a room at the back of the bar where they work. Maya pays P200 a month. They each have a bed and share the bathroom, wash area and kitchen. They pool their money together to buy
food.
Like most girls working in bars, Maya is trying to look for another job but could not find one. She said she wanted to apply as a contractual worker in one of the companies inside the Freeport but is not qualified being an undergraduate.
Thus, like many of the girls in Subic, Maya is forced to survive by selling her body to earn a few hundred pesos.
At a little before noontime, Maya was already shifting restlessly on her seat, looking at her mobile phone and asking her bar mates
for the time. She soon excused herself and ended the interview. By 2pm, she would have to put on her make-up and wear a tiny, skimpy dress. For Maya, the show begins at 4 p.m.
© 2005 Bulatlat ¦ Alipato
Publications
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
If all pay-per-view entertainment available in the U.S. is lumped together, sex comes second — after first-run movies but before
concerts and sporting events. According to entertainment industry analyst Dennis McAlpine, a partner in McAlpine Associates, the “buy rate” for in-home pay-per-view adult entertainment delivered via cable or satellite is between 5%t and 10%.
The buy rate goes up as the content becomes more explicit, topping out at about 20%. (Ironically, one of the largest providers of in-home adult entertainment is Direct TV, which is owned by Rupert Murdock’s News Corp. News Corp. also owns
conservative Fox News.) 