About 70 percent of the members of Lawig Bubai were trafficked from the outskirts or neighboring provinces Maco in Davao del Norte, Mati in Davao Oriental, Surigao and Cagayan de Oro. Most of them were recruited while looking for a job to feed their families. They were promised work as sales clerks, restaurant waitresses, or domestic helpers, but were brought instead to brothels or nightclubs and forced to service male customers. One or two were born into families where the mother or siblings were also in the trade. For these women, perhaps the only thing worse than continuing in prostitution is the possibility that their children could one day suffer the same fate.
Violence is part of the business.
Belen has been beaten up for insisting on a customer s use of a condom. Burning cigarettes have been pressed against her skin. She has been forced to perform sexual acts that were repugnant to her. Once, a customer got her very drunk and raped her. Verbal abuse is commonplace.