THE Philippines will lead a two-day conference to discuss human trafficking in Southeast Asia and ways to combat the problem at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Ortigas Center starting today.

Representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-countries Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are set to join Philippine officials in discussing the development of a legal instrument to demonstrate ASEAN's commitment to combat human trafficking, said Undersecretary Felizardo M. Serapio, the senior Philippine representative to the ASEAN on Transnational Crime.

Serapio said the focus of the meeting is the creation of an ASEAN Convention on Trafficking in Persons or ACTIP.

"We have to show regional resolve in fighting the menace of human trafficking, which has victimized the most vulnerable in our society, particularly women and children," said Serapio, a retired police general from Philippine Military Academy Class 1977.

Serapio and National Police Commission vice chairman Eduardo U. Escueta will lead the Philippine delegation to the 3rd ASEAN Experts Working Group in Combating Human Trafficking.

Other members of the local delegation are from the Department of Interior and Local Government, the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Foreign Affairs, Bureau of Immigration, Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime and the Philippine National Police.

It is estimated that at least 27 million people around the world were victims of trafficking in persons.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has identified the Southeast Asian region as one of the significant sources of trafficked persons in the world and both an origin and destination area.

Serapio said ASEAN member-countries have responded to the need to fight human trafficking in the region through efforts at regional integration, community and specific initiatives.

"It's to ASEAN's credit for staying on the ball against human trafficking. But we need to do more, and do it now, to suppress and prevent human trafficking. This meeting answers to the urgent need to do something. This is our goal in this meeting," he said.

Source: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/news/national/49165-ph-hosts-asean-confab-on-human-trafficking