How have I come to know this? Strangely enough, the day of the celebration was also the day we interviewed Cathy (not her real name), a 16-year old girl who has been running tricks for over four years now. Our group—an all male group of three—was doing then a case study on child prostitution as a requirement in our major subject, Social Studies. I remember well it was almost midnight when we arrived in Tionko Ave., Davao City. The girls, known in the place as “Chicks,” were already there, plying the street to rope in potential customers. (A slang word, "chick" connotes a young and fresh woman, as in a newly hatched chicken.)
“Chicks, Sir?” a lady, who appeared to be a pimp, asked us, pointing to a group of barely clad girls. We ignored her. We walked past the first group until we reached the second group—Cathy’s group. Cathy immediately recognized us. She was wearing a sexy pants and a spaghetti-strap blouse—her everyday outfit.
Previously, we visited the place twice: first, to conduct an ocular visit; second, to arrange an interview with any of the girls who is under 18. Among them, it was only Cathy who agreed to be interviewed. She’s no stranger to people like us. Indeed, we were not the first ones to interview her.
We asked her how much she would ask for the interview. “Since you would not be using me,” she told us in vernacular, “a dozen of Bavarian Chocolate Dunkin Donuts would do.” So a dozen of doughnuts sealed the deal.
On the night of our interview with her, she told us to make it quick, for it was a peak hour—customers would be coming in droves. It would be quick, we told her. But the interview would last for two hours.
Together with the other girls, Cathy lives in a “boarding house” in Trading Boulevard, a place notorious for providing a sanctuary to different sorts of lawless elements. But she didn’t tell us where exactly in Trading Blvd. Trading Blvd. is to DavaoCity what Tondo is to Manila.
Cathy was lured into this lurid trade at the age of 12. Was she forced to be a prostitute? “Nobody forced me,” she said. “It was only me and my barkada (peers) who made the decision to enter prostitution.” It’s doubtful, so we pressed her to tell the truth. Yet she insisted she’s beholden to no one.
For Cathy, work usually begins at around 8:00 o’clock in the evening. From Trading Blvd., a motorcycle would fetch her and the girls going to Tionko Ave. Once they get there, Cathy and the girls are most vulnerable.
Having the kind of work that she has is no picnic, Cathy said. Although she has been a prostitute for almost four years and is considered well versed with the ways of prostitution, she still has to battle against “sadist” customers. Fortunately, for Cathy, the only physical mistreatment she ever got was a slap on her face. But less lucky are her friends who, she said, were badly beaten whenever they refuse a customer who won’t use a condom.
Lest they get infected, these girls have a standing policy not to have sex without condoms. “No condom, no sex” is the rule Cathy and her friends take to heart. Ironically, while it makes them safe from infectious diseases, it is also this same rule that sometimes endangers them.
She knew very well what she’s doing and how people look at her. In fact, she admitted that in the eyes of society, her job is “dirty.” “What can I do?” she asked rhetorically. “This is the only way I can help my mother since my father is no longer alive, and I couldn’t take other jobs because I am just a high school drop-out.”
Cathy seemed like a hopeless case. But like most girls her age, she has a dream, too. “I want to be a nurse someday,” Cathy said. Her dream, I think, is never a question if she can be a nurse but when.
It was about 2:00 o’clock in the morning when we left Tionko Ave. One question lingered in my mind: Were Cathy and her patrons aware that the city just celebrated the No Prostitution Day? But I didn’t bother to ask her. The answer was right under my nose.
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