The proposal of the United Nations to legalize the worlds oldest profession — prostitution — has been opposed in the House of Representatives.
According to Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albana, the Filipino people will not like the proposal much less members of Congress.
He said that the rationale behind the UN proposal was allegedly to provide sex workers access to basic rights and to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
"The Filipino people will surely reject it. No one in the right mind especially in Congress will support a measure legalizing prostitution in the country. The religious groups will definitely oppose such plan," Albano said.
The Isabela lawmaker said that legalizing prostitution is an admission that the Philippine government cannot provide decent jobs to its citizens and therefore "women can just use their body to earn a living."
He said that what the Philippine government should do is to address the country's problem on poverty and unemployment instead of entertaining the UN proposal. His arguement is similar to the Catholic Church on the issue of reproductive health where the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines said that the issue of poverty is not linked to population but the economy.
Albano said that once the issue of poverty and unemployment is addressed, the incidence of prostitution will be drastically cut down.
He added that majority of those who were duped to prostitution are young girls from the remote areas of the country.
"These girls are recruited and promised a good job in urban centers only to find themselves in the prostitution dens," Albano said.
"Given the choice, these women will not engage in prostitution knowing they can acquire sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS. They would natural prefer decent jobs to feed their families," Albano said.
Albano asked the police authorities to exert more efforts in running after the syndicates involved in human trafficking and prostitution. "Unless these syndicates are neutralized prostitution will flourish in many parts of the country," he said.
