The International Justice Movement and how they’re fighting for freedom in the Philippines

In February of this year, I attended the Zoe Conference and in the first session, a member of International Justice Movement (IJM) went up on stage to share the story of how IJM’s division in the Philippines specifically IJM’s Program Against Online Sexual Exploitation of Children helped thousands of Filipino children live a life of freedom.

Founded by former human rights attorney for the United States Department of Justice, Gary Haugen in 1997, IJM has now expanded into several countries including the Philippines. IJM Philippines was established in the Philippines in 2001 and has since then carried on significant campaigns that have changed the lives of Filipino children all over the country.

Today, I had a chance to discuss the work they are doing in the Philippines specific to IJM’s Program Against Online Sexual Exploitation of Children with Evelyn Pingul, director of brand media and communications. Prior to joining IJM in 2015, Evelyn worked in the corporate sector for 26 years and today leads the team in helping to make the online sexual exploitation of children a national issue, rallying agents of change to support the efforts of the Philippine Criminal Justice System.

Thought Junkie: What is the International Justice Movement and what is it specifically doing in the Philippines?

Evelyn Pingul: IJM is a global organization that protects people in poverty from violence. We have 31 program offices in 16 countries to combat trafficking in persons and violence against women and children. We opened our first office in Manila in 2001, and subsequently the Cebu office in 2007. Since we started our operations here in the Philippines our mission is to support the work of the local law enforcement, in collaboration with various stakeholders, in its response to sexual exploitation of children.

Since 2016, IJM has partnered with the Philippine government, international law enforcement, and NGOs to combat online sexual exploitation of children, in particular the trafficking of children to create new child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), including via livestreaming video. To date, we have assisted Philippine authorities in more than 300 operations, leading to the rescue of more than 1,100 victims and the arrest of close to 400 suspects of online sexual exploitation of children (first case dates back to 2011).

What inspired you to join this cause?I heard a very compelling story about child exploitation in 2013. I cannot unknow it. The Lord brought to my path an American Lawyer who introduced me to IJM and invited me to join IJM in 2014. The pain of hearing stories of abuse and exploitation moved me so much that I left my thriving career in San Miguel and joined IJM in 2015. I am now in my 9th year in IJM.

How has IJMPH help the Philippines? Please share any impactful stories.

Our hope is that we will see an end of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) in our lifetime. IJM Philippines is applying this model of protection to help ensure that children are free to have a future void of online sexual exploitation. We help address the epidemic of this crime by focusing on three strategic priorities.

Firstly, we help strengthen justice systems. We support our law enforcement partners in bringing children to safety, convicting criminals, and building government capacity to respond to online sexual exploitation of children slavery and violence. Specifically, JM has been helping strengthen the public justice system in the Philippines through capacity-building activities as the Advanced Investigations Workshops (AIW) for law enforcement partners, Prosecuting Online Sexual Exploitation (POSE) training for public prosecution partners, and Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) training for aftercare partners.

IJM holds basic training on investigating internet crimes against children for Philippine law enforcement partners. We also hold Advanced Investigative Workshops in collaboration with international law enforcement partners. This workshop includes practical components that allows officers to work on actual investigative leads and referrals. Aside from training, coaching, and mentoring investigators, IJM provides strategic support for command officers, provide logistical support for operations, help with foreign law enforcement networking, and conduct policy/legislative advocacy to support our law enforcement partners.

IJM has also been supporting efforts to build a stronger global response to online sexual exploitation of children, which is a growing, borderless crime. We are part of the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Center (PICACC), which is a model for an enhanced global response against online sexual exploitation of children. The PICACC is a cooperation among local and international law enforcement, namely the PNP-WCPC, the NBI-AHTRAD, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and the United Kingdom National Crime Agency (UK NCA); in partnership with non-government organization, International Justice Mission (IJM).

Please share with us how you empower survivors once they’ve been freed.

We help restore and support survivors through trauma-informed aftercare and advocacy training so they can flourish and lead. Ruby,* not her real name, is a survivor of OSEC. IJM supported her restoration process. Now, she is leading the fight against this crime – using her voice to require tech companies to make their platforms safe by design. Many OSEC survivors also supported the passing of the UK Online Safety Bill. This leads to stricter laws being set in place to protect children online.And we help accelerate the fight against this violent crime through government and local partnerships, technology, and advocacy.

The crime of OSEC is widespread and underreported. IJM’s Scale of Harm study https://www.ijm.org.ph/resources revealed that nearly half a million children in the Philippines were trafficked to produce new child sexual exploitation material in 2022 alone. That is 1 in every 100 Filipino children. Ending this crime requires our collective effort – from the government to private organizations, media, influencers, community, etc. we should accelerate our efforts to ensure that our children will be protected from this crime.

How can fellow Filipinos help IJM?

We need our fellow Filipinos to sound the alarm. This is the year for all of us to unite around the need to protect children from the horrors of OSEC. We need organizations like IJM and our local government units to join forces to help equip local communities to identify and report OSEC crimes so these nearly half a million children don’t sit in daily online exploitation and abuse any longer.

What are important things Filipinos can do now that will greatly help your mission?

The lucrative nature of OSEC encourages many people in the Philippines to commit this crime – blaming poverty. This is a poor alibi. Many poor Filipinos are working tirelessly to provide a decent life to their children. Poverty is a key risk factor for sure, but financial gain or motivation is what drives local traffickers (usually parents or relatives who has access to the child) to engage in OSEC. The greed of traffickers and violent natures of demand-side sex offenders are to be blame. So let us call this out.

One survivor noted, the abandonment of your family, the failure of so many to protect you, the rejection of the community later, and the internal shame, blame and hopelessness that many of the survivors of OSEC struggle with are often the long-term impacts of this crime. So, I would encourage those in the community, please watch over you children, protect them from this harm. If you hear a case of OSEC, please report to the authorities, do not hold back. This crime is horrible that you don’t want this to happen to someone you know. Help in raising awareness and report, report, report. We need to help the law enforcement identify the 500,000 children. We need to build deterrence in our communities. It’s only through people of goodwill coming together to show these children their worth, protecting them with our life, and through building the governmental and systemic protections that prevent others from abuse will we turn the tide.

To know more and to help, visit https://www.ijm.org.ph/