Just over a week ago we went on a trip to Angeles City.
It’s only about an hour and a half or so north of the area we’re staying in and takes two bus rides to get there. At one point there was a US military base there but the influence hasn’t left it.
There are definitely tourists that still have a heavy presence in Angeles.
Sex tourists.
“It’s the Philippines sin city,” I was told.
I’ve been going to the Philippines every three or four years growing up, all my family lives in the Metro Manila area, and up until coming here this time around, I had never even heard of Angeles City before.
I’ve been to Thailand & Cambodia on the Race, but never had any intentional exposure to a red light district before. There are stories of sex trafficking through blogs, documentaries, and videos that I’ve seen and heard before…
But watching it unfold all around me is something I can’t un-see.
Our team went with Kenny, who everyone calls Coach, as he took us- not just ‘us’ as ‘the Philippines Team,’ but us as the Church- the body of Christ, out of our comfort zones and into the streets and the bars where precious girls are being prostituted.
Kenny started an organization called Wipe Every Tear, which we are partnered with while we are here in the Philippines. Wipe Every Tear offers hope and a way out of the sex trade industry to women and their children by providing 24/7 housing, education, discipleship, community, and so much more.
We walked down a street in Angeles City called Walking Street. It’s on a 2km strip of street that has an estimated 15,000 girls who are working in bars and part of the sex trade in Angeles City.
The first bar we went into was actually a lot quieter than I would have expected, but here’s a rundown of what I saw, and how I was told the girls get sold.
We first walked up the stairs of a dim hallway and into the bar. It wasn’t a big room, but there was a small stage in the center of the room and maybe a dozen girls standing. They were wearing variations of a small two-piece outfit in the same shade of red, make up, heels, and hair fixed- ‘all dolled up.’
One more piece to the outfit- a number.
Each girl wears a number, as if they’re a number on a menu.
But that’s how it works.
The girls are there one the stage and men come into the bars, and sit down and buy drinks. One guy I saw was flirting with the girls and asking them to dance with each other as he danced in his seat.
Many guys come into the bar alone, buy a drink for themselves, and can choose a girl from the stage to sit down and have a drink with him. He buys her a drink, but the ‘girl’s drinks’ as they’re called, are twice the price of a normal drink, because the girl will make commission off how many girl’s drinks she can get the guy to buy.
The girls will make 150 pesos (just under $4) in salary a night, plus whatever commission they can get off the drinks. One girl who Coach knows, spends P70 just to commute to and from work every night- so if she doesn’t make any commission, she takes home about $2 to support not only her kid, but her parents and siblings.
If a guy wants to ‘take a girl out,’ most likely back to the hotel he’s staying at, he has to pay the manager – ‘Mamasan’ (usually the pimps here are women), a ‘bar fee’ or ‘early work release fee.’ The fee is technically charged to the girl, since she’s leaving work, but the guy taking her out is the one who will pay the ‘fee.’
The bar fee is probably not standardized, but where we were at, was P1500 ($35). The girl will take home just under half of that for some stranger to take her to some place and do whatever he wants with her for the night.
These girls work in the bars because they can’t find any work out in the provinces and have entire families that they are trying to provide for.
Family is such a strong value here in the Philippines. It’s a reason many of the girls are torn when presented the option to go with Wipe Every Tear and go to school and move away from Angeles- they cannot just leave their parents and siblings to provide for themselves.
Many times the families of the girls have no idea where they are working because it’s not the type of job they want to tell anyone they have.
This was just a look into part of the ministry that we have here in the Philippines.
There are precious daughters of the Lord who are working in the bars, selling themselves as a way to provide. They are intelligent girls, capable of so much more- and the Father has greater things in store for them, and we’re going to tell them.
As we left Angeles City the next day, I got to sit down with Coach as he talked to a girl who walked by. She had just come from work for the night and was on her way to see a friend for their birthday. She was brought to tears as he shared with her the Hope House, it’s vision, purpose, and the success stories happening today.
She was torn as she wanted to say yes, but thinking it was too good to be true. She knew that going to school, even if all costs of living were covered for her, she’d be unable to work and send any money to her parents and siblings that she was trying to provide for.
I pray that we hear from her again. At the time we me her, she hadn’t been bought for the night by a stranger- and I hope she never has to know that feeling. She’s already been paid for, but not bring her into bondage, but into freedom through Christ.
The Lord is at work, even in the darkest places, and that is something I also cannot un-see.
