The 21st century slavery

[caption id="attachment_1148" align="aligncenter" width="405" caption="On Tionko Avenue near the Central Bank, street-level prostitution is thriving."][/caption]

Among the places in Mindanao, Davao City is lucky enough to have been spared from the wars that continue to ravage its neighbors. But it has not been spared from what Nicholas Kristof, a Pulitzer prize-winning columnist in The New York Times, dubbed as the 21st century slavery—prostitution.

Today, October 5, Davao City is celebrating the “No Prostitution Day.” This is the fifth time that the city is celebrating it.

Does the celebration mark the end of prostitution?

Sex in the city

On October 5, 2008, Davao City celebrated the “No Prostitution Day” for the fourth time. In deference to the celebration, Mindanao Times, a local daily, ran an editorial entitled “Day of No Prostitution campaign.” “A day of no prostitution,” Mindanao Times noted, “includes…no prostitution occurring in massage parlors, on the streets, in hotels or everywhere else.” But it was ironic that as the city was celebrating the No Prostitution Day, one sector seemed oblivious to it: The sector of the prostitutes.

How have I come to know this?