Philippines

People

Human trafficking is a major issue in the Philippines, with trafficked persons falling prey to different types of crimes, including forced labour, sex trafficking, child labour and organ trafficking. As one of the world’s largest sources of labour migration, the Philippines offers ample ground for unethical recruitment. Recruitment costs can run higher than anticipated wages, often forcing individuals to sell assets or borrow money at high interest rates, making them more vulnerable to human trafficking. Additionally, the country’s sex industry has seen an increase in online child pornography. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has restricted transport and travel, it has also caused increased economic hardship, which has made more Filipino women and children vulnerable to unethical recruitment and trafficking.

Human smuggling is closely linked to human trafficking in the Philippines, which is a key source countries for human smuggling to other East and South-east Asian countries. Smuggling routes also exist to the United States, Europe and the Arab Gulf region. Irregular migrants often rely on document fraud, identity swapping and other techniques to access labour opportunities. A loose network of corporate and individual brokers assists with human smuggling.

Trade

The Philippines is a destination and source country for arms trafficking, with most illegal arms being domestically produced or leaked from government stockpiles. The military and some of its affiliated militias are also believed to facilitate the illegal trade of imported weapons, particularly alongside official entry points. Illegal arms are largely acquired by violent non-state armed groups in the country, including separatist groups, family clan-based organizations, criminal organizations and terrorist groups.

Environment

Despite severe deforestation over the last forty years, illegal logging continues to be widespread in the Philippines. Most of the illegal timber is exported to foreign markets, including China, Japan and the United States. Slow economic growth, widespread poverty, a growing population, weak governance and corruption alongside official entry points have fuelled illegal logging in the country. There is also an illicit trade in rare ornamental plant species, particularly sourced in Palawan. Meanwhile, the country’s illegal online plant trade has increased in recent years.

The Philippines, a biodiversity hotspot, is also a major player in the illegal wildlife-trade market as a consumer, source and transit country for parrots and cockatoos from New Guinea, Philippine pangolins, Indian star tortoises, and corals, among others. Facebook is the main market for illegal wildlife trade. As with illegal logging, illegal wildlife trade in the Philippines is facilitated by weak law enforcement and corruption at seaports and airports. There are also illegal gold-mining operations in the Philippines, including in Mindanao, where there is significant transnational smuggling of gold due to corrupt state officials who rely on this criminal market to fund counter-insurgency operations and elections. The country’s porous borders and the propensity of international companies to export gold outside of national regulatory regimes also aid the illegal gold market.

Drugs

The country is a source, corridor and destination for methamphetamine, the use of which in the Philippines is estimated to be among the highest in the world. Precursor chemicals for meth production are smuggled into the country from pharmaceutical-industry supply points in China and Vietnam. This trade is facilitated by corruption at all levels of state institutions. Cannabis is the second-most consumed drug in the Philippines, with year-round domestic cultivation across the country, primarily on the islands of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. There has been an increase in the number of airport and customs arrests for imported marijuana, which was likely being smuggled for medicinal purposes.

Cocaine is a comparably less popular drug than cannabis in the Philippines and is trafficked into the country by foreign organized-criminal groups, in collaboration with domestic actors. There is also an increase in cocaine washing up in the Eastern coastal provinces, which government authorities say is most likely being transited to Australia and dumped in Philippine waters. The Philippines is a destination and, to a lesser extent, transit market for heroin from the Golden Triangle region. However, compared to its neighbours in the region, domestic consumption of heroin and other opiates is low and is superseded by other drugs.

Criminal Actors

There is evidence of widespread links between organized crime, politics and state institutions in the Philippines. In particular, nepotism, driven by clan-based political patronage, has created a political environment ripe for corrupt practices and exploitation by organized-criminal groups in the country. There are a number of generational organized-crime groups with foreign origins in the country that are involved in drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking and money laundering through casinos, offshore electronic and internet-based betting facilities and real estate. There is also a reported increase in foreign Islamic fighters migrating to ISIS-affiliated groups in the southern Philippines and becoming involved in criminal markets.

Mafia-style criminal actors also operate in the Philippines and activity from these mafia-style groups is likely only to increase in the coming years. The primary form of such groups is based on familial clans that have dominated Filipino politics and society for decades. Meanwhile, loose criminal networks have emerged from different parts of the Philippines, particularly the southern Philippines. These networks are involved in various criminal activities. Some of these groups are classified as violent non-state actors, while others are designated as terrorist groups by the state. The COVID-19 pandemic gave a boost to online crimes and scams from criminal networks in the Philippines.

Leadership and governance

The Philippines has taken a strong position against organized crime, particularly as it relates to illicit drugs. However, extrajudicial killings have become a core element of this effort. Moreover, there are allegations of high-level government and law enforcement involvement in organized-criminal markets, including in Mindanao. In June 2020, the country also signed an anti-terror law, which has been questioned before the Supreme Court and has raised fears that it will be used by the government to silence critics and avoid accountability. Meanwhile, security forces in the Philippines have been laying charges of corruption against officials critical of the government.

The Philippines is a strong member of regional consensus agreements and alliances around organized crime. The country is also party to most of the relevant international conventions, treaties, plans of action and political statements related to drugs, organized crime and international cooperation. However, the Philippines has been sporadic in its pursuit of practical measures to implement international cooperation. On a national level, the Philippines has a number of laws pertaining to organized crime, as well as laws aimed at eliminating and punishing human trafficking and corruption. The country has severe penalties for drug-related crimes and is currently reviewing proposed legislation to revive the death penalty for drug traffickers. The country also has a law that aims to preserve and encourage ecological balance and biological diversity.

Criminal justice and security

Law enforcement officials are believed to be heavily involved in facilitating illicit criminal markets in the country, particularly drug trafficking. Customs, border and maritime officials are alleged to be central participants in the transnational smuggling of goods via air, land and sea routes. Overall, the country has ineffective control over its territory and borders due to the vastness of its seascapes and the scale of economic activity that occurs in these seascapes, including the smuggling of drugs, arms, counterfeit goods and people. There is also evidence of extensive illegal smuggling through cargo and passengers at the country’s airports.

There is some evidence of a corrupt judiciary in the Philippines, including the presence of corruption and mistreatment in prison facilities as well as allegations of organized-criminal groups operating inside these institutions with the support of correctional officers and other security officials. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a militaristic approach to controlling the pandemic resulted in overcrowded criminal justice institutions.

Economic and financial environment

The Philippines nominally complies with most mechanisms to counter money laundering and terrorist financing. However, these measures have featured insufficient law enforcement and weak oversight. Additionally, there have been calls for the Philippines to significantly improve its compliance with measures addressing money laundering through its casinos. The introduction of new offshore internet-based gambling call centres has added to money laundering threats in the country. There are also growing concerns about financing related to the influx of returnee ISIS fighters to the southern Philippines. Although the country experienced a pandemic-induced recession in 2020, the investment climate has been enhanced over the last decade and is recognized as one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia. Additionally, special economic zones are known for their regulatory openness, and lack of bureaucratic hurdles for investors.

Civil society and social protection

The Philippines has awitness-protection programme that provides protection and benefits to people who are willing to testify or have knowledge about certain crimes. The government also offers protection to human-trafficking victims through a programme that provides psychological and medical aid, legal assistance, alternative livelihood and skills training and reintegration services to victims. The Philippines National Police Force is actively engaged with the National Crime Prevention and Public Safety Programme, which includes intensification of the Philippines National Police checkpoints, community awareness, intensification of mobile patrols and police presence, intelligence-driven preventive patrols and the development of security and crime-awareness campaigns. In March 2017, the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs was created to ensure an integrated and unified approach to government anti-drug-abuse programmes and policies. While the Philippines has a significant national civil-society capacity, the freedom of the press is extremely repressed, with the government banning, monitoring and intimidating journalists and news agencies that were investigating allegations of government corruption and criminal behaviour.