Especially bouyant is the growth of tourism in the Clark Field Special Economic Zone. Thanks to an open skies policy, numerous direct flights from all over the Asia Pacific region are bringing loads of tourists to enjoy the golf and other leisure resorts of Central and Northern Luzon. A shortage of hotel facilities is already being felt in this important component of the Global Gateway made up of Clark, Subic and Tarlac that are being interconnected by expressways.

Together with this good news, however, there seems to be a bad news. With the increasing number of tourists in the Clark area, the prostitution industry is rearing once more its ugly head. If nothing is done by the legitimate business enterprises, the local government and non-governmental organizations working together to combat this moral epidemic, Clark and the surrounding areas could revert to the notoriety of the years when sexhungry US military men spawned a thriving prostitution industry.

There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that prostitution is an affront against the dignity of a human person. Just last March 3, 2006, the Holy See asked the international community to adapt laws defending women from sexual violence, as reported by the Zenit International News Agency.

The petition was presented by Marilyn Ann Martone, in the name of the Vatican Commission on the Status of Women, of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC).

The council is meeting to consider themes arising from the Fourth World Conference on Women, and from the 23rd special session of the General Assembly entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century."

"The Holy See again condemns vigorously the sexual violence that frequently has women and girls for its object and encourages the passing of laws that will effectively defend them from such violence," said the representative of the Holy See.

"Nor can we fail, in the name of the respect due to the human person, to condemn the widespread culture which encourages the systematic exploitation of sexuality and corrupts even very young girls into letting their bodies be used for profit in a worldwide billion industry," said Martone.

"Progress for women is progress for all," she said. "The World Summit rightly underlined the interdependence of development, peace and security and human rights."

Martone promoted microcredit projects directed toward women.

"This is a phenomenon which has had the support of local Catholic Churches for many years, through parallel schemes and informal small loans to poor people whose needs were not met by the financial institutions," she said.

"It is most encouraging to see poor women’s patience, honesty and hard work rewarded in this way in many places, and it is to be encouraged by attention to the reform of structures that will in turn assist the spread and continued success of new initiatives in this field," she added.

The representative outlined some key areas that need to be addressed, in particular, she said, "it would be well therefore to reconsider policies directed at elderly women, who have oftentimes cared for others in their adulthood, and who in justice should receive proper support in their turn."

She said another area concerns migrant women: "It often happens that women migrants become the principal source of income for their family. The most common employment opportunities for women, other than domestic work, consist in helping the elderly, caring for the sick and working in the hotel sector."

"These, too, are areas where just treatment must be assured for migrant women out of respect for their feminity in recognition of their equal rights," she said.

"Trafficking in human beings," said Martone, "has a particularly negative impact on women."

"In some cases there are women and girls who are exploited almost like slaves in their work, and not infrequently in the sex industry," she said. "The culture which encourages the systematic exploitation of sexuality is as pervasive as it is unhealthy for society and must be addressed by more than fine words."

The local government officials in the towns and cities surrounding Clark should work with nongovernmental organizations, like the Couples for Christ to redirect the activities of former or potential prostitutes towards entrepreneurial ventures through microcredit, cooperative development, values formation and the other capacity building efforts for which such programs as the Gawad Kalinga have become famous. No woman should be allowed to be so desperately poor as to choose the selling of her body as the only means of survival. For comments, my email is bvillegas@uap.edu.ph