(the content is my original idea and the poster is orignally drawn by hands)

“It’s not that I want to sell my kid. I just need money”: The Philippine mothers who sell their babies.

The sale of children for adoption is an open secret in poor Philippine communities. When someone gets
pregnant without planning to, and does not have enough money for an illegal abortion, an option could
be to look for an adoptive parent with cash to offer. According to the National Bureau of Investigation,
the usual going rate for an infant is between US$100 and US$500 and buyers tend to be Filipinos. One of
them is Pia, a 42-year-old fisher from a coastal community in southern Philippines. In 2019, she bought a
baby boy from a woman in Manila for US$200 after receiving a text message from a friend about an
unwanted baby.

POVERTY THAT LEADS TO PROSTITUTION

Poverty has been identified as the primary push factor of prostitution. Parents, relatives and friends with
no regular source of income breed and encourage prostitution for cash. Reports have it that there are at
least a million Filipino prostitutes in the country. According to ILO estimates, there are 75,000 to
100,000 children engaged in the sex trade. Judging by these reports, prostitution may now be the
country’s fourth largest source of GNP. For those careworn from a life of poverty and victims of natural
disasters, the only means of many women’s survival in the Philippines is to quit school and find work in
the capitol, often as housekeepers. However, jobs promised to them often turn out to be nightmares.

“This was true for Grace, who, only 13 years old and lacking resources, became one of these victims.
Apple, 16 years old, already has a 2-year-old child and is pregnant again by an unknown man (Info
chrétienne, 2017). The fight for survival required them both to leave behind their school desks in order
to go to work selling their bodies.

Many young girls find themselves in situations similar to those of Grace and Apple, and once at the
mercy of their exploiters, it is impossible for them to escape. Every year, thousands of women and
young girls are victims of the local sex industry (Unicef, 2005).”