TRANSNATIONAL

CRIMES
Asian Setting
Presented by:
Jaycee A Palattao
What is transnational crime?
Transnational Crimes is defined
according to the United Nations Office of
Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as crimes
which covers not only offences
committed in more than one State, but
also those that take place in one State
but are planned or controlled in another.
Also included are crimes in one State
committed by groups that operate in
more than one State, and crimes
committed in one State that has
substantial effects in another State.
The National Security Council defined it
as those self-perpetuating associations
of individuals who operate
transnationally for the purpose of
obtaining power, influence, monetary
and/or commercial gains, wholly or in
part by illegal means, while protecting
their activities through a pattern of
corruption and/ or violence, or while
protecting their illegal activities through a
transnational organizational structure
and the exploitation of transnational
commerce or communication
mechanisms
In addition, the Philippine Center on
Transnational Crime defines Transnational
Crime as certain criminal phenomena
transcending international borders,
transgressing the laws of several states, or
having an impact on another country. It covers
offenses whose inception, prevention and/or
direct or indirect effects involve more than one
country. It is an offense that has an
international dimension and involves crossing
of at least one border before, during or after
the fact.
 CHINA
1. Gangs (Triads)
- Their activities include drug trafficking, gambling,
prostitution, thefts, extortion, money laundering, contract
killing and counterfeiting.
- The Triads started as a resistance named Tian Di
Hui which fought against the Manchu Emperor of the Qing
Dynasty.
2. Criminal Syndicates- prostitution, illegal immigration,
slavery, other organized forms of vices.
Typical Structure of the Chinese Triad
Leader
(Dragon
Head)

Incense Vanguard

General Recruiting Liaison Education

Affairs Section Section Section

Organizational Section

Fighting Section
 HONG KONG

• Wo Shing Wo or WSW is the oldest of the Wo Group triad societies, and is the triad with
the longest history in Hong Kong. According to the Hong Kong police, the triad is involved
in extortion, drug trafficking, gambling and prostitution. Wo Shing Wo was established in
Sham Shui Po in 1930.
• The 14K is a triad group based in Hong Kong but active internationally. It is the second
largest triad group in the world with around 20,000 members split into thirty subgroups.
They are the main rival of the Sun Yee On, which is the largest triad.
• Sun Yee On, or New Righteousness and Peace Commercial and Industrial Guild, is one of
the leading triads in Hong Kong and China. It has more than 55,000 members worldwide.
It is also believed to be active in the United Kingdom, the United States, France and
Belgium
 JAPAN
• Yakuza - the most influential organized crime group in Japan.
- also known as gokudō, ‘’extreme path’’.
- Japanese police, and media, call them bōryokudan, “violent groups’’
- The yakuza call themselves ninkyō dantai, “chivalrous organization’’
- Originates from the traditional Japanese card game Oicho-Kabu (8-9-3)
- Corporate extractions and the Sokoiya (shareholders meeting men).
- Exploitation of women, prostitutions mostly coming from Philippines, Thailand
and Taiwan who are imported as entertainers.
 Typical Yakuza Structure

OYABUN
Family Boss

SAIKO-KOMON WAKAGASHIRA SHATEIGASHIRA

Administration 1st Lieutenant 2nd Lieutenant

SHINGIIN KYODAI SHATEI

Law Advisor Big Brother Little Brother

KAIKEI
Accountant
Principal Yakuza Families
How does YG make money?
 CAMBODIA
• Chinese and Myanmorese is the major
controller of organized transnational
crime.
• Wide spread corruption, gambling,
prostitution, money laundering.
• Prostitution is the most expensive
organized crime in the country
especially on virgin women.
REPUBLIC OF KOREA
 How do we address the issue of
Transnational Crime?
In 1997, the member states of the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed the 1997 ASEAN Declaration
on Transnational Crime. This declaration recognized the
pernicious effects of transnational crime, such as terrorism,
illicit drug trafficking, arms smuggling, money laundering,
traffic in persons and piracy on regional stability and
development, the maintenance of the rule of law and the
welfare of the region's peoples. Furthermore, it also aims to
suppress the crime and develop set of actions to be able to
meet the desired effect.
 How do we address the issue of
Transnational Crime?

Office of the Special Envoy on Philippine Center on

Transnational Crimes Transnational Crime
(OSETC) (PCTC).
Philippine Center on Transnational Crime
(PCTC)
• It houses INTERPOL Manila

• It is the national law enforcement agency

which carries investigations beyond the
borders of the Philippines. The PCTC
coordinates all transnational crime
operations carried out by other government
agencies of the Philippines. It designs new
projects to strengthen the country’s
combined response and ensures the efficient
exchange of information. The PCTC
recommends ways to better prevent
transnational crime and to detect and
apprehend criminals operating across
borders. The PCTC is assisted by the
Philippines’ twenty two (22) national law
enforcement agencies.
 Office of the Special Envoy on
Transnational Crimes (OSETC)

OSETC was established pursuant to Executive

Order 265

It will serve as an oversight body to provide the critical

link between and among local, national, regional and
international agencies and organizations in forging
agreements, concretizing cooperation and harmonizing
action. Furthermore, the SETC is likewise mandated to
set policy directions and program design standards and
advise the President on all matters regarding
transnational crime. Likewise, he shall represent the
Philippine government in regional and international fora
on transnational crime and serve as a focal point for
coordinating, integrating and evaluating the efforts of
law enforcement and other government agencies
involved in the campaign against transnational crime
Trafficking in persons refers to the recruitment, transportation,
transfer or harboring, or receipts of persons with or without the
victim’s consent or knowledge, within or across national borders by
means of threat or use of force, or other forms of coercion, abduction,
fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position, taking advantage of
the vulnerability of the person, or the giving or receiving of payments
or benefits to achieve the consent of the person having control over
another person for the purpose of exploitation which includes at a
minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms
of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, servitude or
the removal or sale of organs.
The recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harboring or receipt of a
child for the purpose of
exploitation shall also be
considered as “trafficking in
persons” even if it does not
involve any of the means set forth
in the preceding paragraph.
Trafficking in persons by its
nature is not only limited in
sexual trafficking but could
also partake of forced labor
without just compensation
even to the extent or working
as slaves in armed conflicted
areas.
 Data and Statistics
• In a report published by the United Nations in 2012, it
recorded that transnational organized crime generated an
estimated $870 Billion or equal to 1.5 percent of global
Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

• Although figures vary, an estimate from the International

Labour Organization (ILO) in 2005 indicated that about 2.4
million people are victims of trafficking at any given time,
and that profits from trafficking are about $32 billion per
year.
UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons
in 2012
Figure 1. GENDER AND AGE PROFILE OF VICTIMS DETECTED GLOBALLY
UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons
in 2012
Figure 2. CONVICTION RATE BY GENDER AND BY REGION
UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons
in 2012
Figure 3. FORMS OF EXPLOITATION, NUMBER OF DETECTED VICTIMS PER
REGION
UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons
in 2012
Figure 4. DISTRIBUTION OF FORMS OF EXPLOITATION IN SOUTH AND EAST
ASIA
Philippine Setting

According to the International Labor

Organization, one million Filipino men leave
the Philippines each year and currently
there are around 10 million Overseas
Filipino Workers living and working abroad.

Many of them are subjected to forced labor

or involuntary servitude in factories,
vessels, some even experience rape and
violent physical and sexual abuse.
Women in general are
exploited in the commercial
sex industry. They (migrant
workers) are often subject of
violence, threats, inhumane
living conditions, nonpayment
of salaries, and withholding of
travel and identity documents.

• SEX FOR FLIGHT

• TRAFFICKED
ENTERTAINERS and MAIL
ORDER BRIDE in Korea.
 In the Philippines, men are usually
subjected to forced labor and debt
bondage in the agricultural, fishing
and maritime industries while
women and children are trafficked
within the country as domestic
workers, small-scale factory
workers, forced begging, and
commercial sex industry.

Filipino boxers who was brought in Australia on

sporting visas, forcing them into a debt-
bondage situation and exploiting them as
unpaid houseboys.
 According to UNICEF, it is estimated that there
are two million children who are victims of sex
trade each year. In addition, the US
Department of State Trafficking in Persons
Report in 2013 provided that, child tourism
remained a serious problem in the Philippines.

In this case, Filipino children are coerced to

perform sex acts for internet broadcast to
paying foreign viewers. Currently, there’s a
rising trend of boys becoming victims of sexual
exploitation.

On December 2013, a UK court sentenced a 67-year-old

pedophile to 14-year imprisonment for directing filmed rapes of
young children live on the Internet.

Michael Eller, a grandfather, set up a Skype link from his

Hertfordshire home to instruct adults in the Philippines to rape
and abuse young girls.
In a data map provided by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection of the United
Kingdom also showed on Google maps where child pornography in the Philippines
was transmitted in 2012.The report stated that most child pornographic materials,
including photos, recorded videos and live-streamed videos, were transmitted from
Metro Manila, Angeles City in Pampanga, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.

This is Sweetie. She was created to guise as a minor who is willing to chat or do
webcam sex which usually involves men from Western countries paying
children from impoverished countries, such as the Philippines, for sex shows.
Human Trafficking
after Yolanda
 Prosecution of Offenses
• In 2012, 227 cases were filed with the Department of
Justice however it is still unknown how many of
these cases were prosecuted.

• In 2012, 24 convictions, three convictions for labor

trafficking

• In 2011, 29 convictions were made, two convictions

were for labor trafficking.
How is it done?
In the Philippines, traffickers, in partnership with
organized crime syndicates and complicit law
enforcement officers, regularly operate through
fraudulent recruitment agencies and practices to
traffic migrants.

In 2010, there were reports that illicit recruiters

increased their use of student, intern, and
exchange program visas to circumvent the
Philippines government and receiving countries’
regulatory frameworks for foreign workers.

Currently, illegal recruiters use social networks and

emails to fraudulently recruit Filipinos for overseas
work.
• Poverty v. Population Growth

• Unemployment

• Corruption

• An estimated 900,000 undocumented Filipinos, mostly based in

Mindanao, whose lack of official documentation contributes to the
population’s vulnerability to trafficking.

• CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICTS

Emerging Problems
Actual Problems
Based on its nature, transnational crimes are multifaceted hence
the issues of a unilateral or multidisciplinary approach on these
crimes may vary.

• Implementation of laws

• Investigating, Prosecuting and Punishing these crimes are

deemed complex.

• Determining the proper forum

Potential Problems
Emergence of new forms of transnational crimes, their legal basis,
and approach.

Parties Involved

• United Nations
• Partner States
• Executive and Legislative Branches of the Government
• Law Enforcement Agencies
• Non-Government Organizations
Emerging Opportunities
• Increase coordination and partnership with states and organizations
involved in suppressing transnational crimes.

• Study potential developments and address efficiently the issues and

concerns regarding the development of new forms of transnational
crimes.

• Effectively execute the programmes of action concerning the

implementation of laws and means in fighting transnational crimes.

• Educate the law enforcement and those in the grassroots regarding the
threats of transnational crimes.

• Undertake prevention measures and awareness campaigns especially

those who may be prone to transnational crimes.
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ISSUES INVOLVED
LEGAL PRINCIPLES, CONVENTIONS, AND TREATIES
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

HUMAN TRAFFICKING
• Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime

• Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

• 1997 ASEAN Declaration on Transnational Crime

• Republic Act No. 10364 Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012