Are Prostitutes the Cheapest "commodities" in the Philippines?

Are Prostitutes the Cheapest “Commodities” in the Philippines?

Eastern Visayas continues to be a source of women and children being sent to Metro Manila brothels and sweatshops, and the number of trafficking cases is alarming, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the region.

As one DOM ( Dirty old man) commented, the cheapest commodity now in the Philippines is the Filipino call girl, AKA Guest-Relations Officer (GRO) in night clubs or in bars or working student. This DOM said that while prices of food, gasoline and other staple products keep on rising in the Philippines, the fees for the youthful Filipino practitioners of the world’s oldest profession remain steady. Why? The reason is the law of supply and demand. While there are more and more Filipino women willing to use their bodies to generate income, only the rich, the powerful or the influential in the Philippines and the foreign tourists, including the Balikbayan, can afford the “good times.”

From what I gathered, the usual rate for a decent-looking young Filipino woman is P1,500 per night or US$30 (roughly @ $1/P50). Rates can go up to $100 (P5,000) per night for the better-looking and younger call girls. Another DOM said that for $300 (P15,000) or less, one can have the short-time company of a movie starlet. And indeed, the rates in Metro Manila are way below those charged by brothels in Nevada and other sin cities in the United States, as one Fil-Am retiree explained to his buddies. And more often than not, the rate for a Filipino call girl is per night for unlimited action. The rates are much lower in the Philippine provinces, although often times the girls are supposed to be younger.

Golf tours to the Philippines of Filipino-American sports enthusiasts have become popular because not only do the tourists play golf but they can also avail themselves of the services of GROs and young female companions who double as masseurs or what not. Prostitution may be a bigger “business” than illegal gambling such as the “jueteng” (numbers’ game). According to many of the call girls, half of their fees go to the pimp or madam who is handling the business end of the oldest profession. The pimps (or madams) in turn take care of the politicians, the law-enforcement officers (LEO) and other nefarious hands that dip into, and profit from the sex trade. It has also been reported that many members of the Filipino Fourth Estate refuse to do investigative reporting on prostitution as the writers are given the trade’s “fringe benefits,” such as payment in kind or using another