AFTER all the brouhaha and grandstanding, including your usual corruption about the government’s aid response to the marginalized, displaced working class, there is still a small but significant portion that has never received anything since Day 1 when the quarantine started some six months ago.
Midway into the quarantine brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote about this forgotten if not ignored, displaced, out-of-job and most probably now desperately hungry segment of the working-class masses.
And it seems to no avail, until I saw this story in the Sept. 21, 2020 issue of Panay News which prompted this revisit:
‘SEX TAKES A HIT’
Pandemic drives Iloilo ‘flesh traders’ away
Sex sells, but not quite these past few months.
With nightclubs closed to prevent the spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), there has been a dearth of customers for commercial sex workers, according to the city government’s Task Force on Morals and Values Formation.
Suffering a heavy economic beating from the pandemic, this city’s prostituted women and men – mostly non-residents of Iloilo – have left, said task force chief Nestor Canong.
But it may not be just about the lack of customers paying for sex. Workers in the flesh trade were suddenly faced an awful choice between livelihood and health.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can spread from person to person in close contact through small droplets from the nose or mouth, and it can be fatal to the immunocompromised.
The task force has been discreetly monitoring the movements of commercial sex workers – a sector of the workforce that remains all but invisible to society – since the start of the community quarantine in March.
The closure of beerhouses, nightclubs and even massage parlors drove some commercial sex workers to ply their trade on the streets at night.
“But there are not too many freelance sex workers here, and the curfew is further restricting their kind of job,” said Canong, without giving figures.
People go home early because of the curfew that starts at 10 a.m. and ends at 4 a.m. of the next day, he explained.
Which brings us to the question: What about the sex workers?
Sex workers are women, men and transgendered people who receive money or goods in exchange for sexual services, and who consciously define those activities as income-generating; a person who is employed in the sex industry.
In short they’re your friendly neighbourhood prostitute.
This is one industry that has been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, I know prostitution is still, in theory, illegal in the Philippines. But we cannot deny the fact that it has been existing and thriving long before the Spaniards arrived on these islands.
The once lively and throbbing-with-life red light districts of Quezon Avenue in Quezon City, Burgos Street in Makati City, the strip joints in Cubao, likewise for the strip joints on JM Basa Street in “I Am Iloilo City”, are now like abandoned ghost towns.
The sex industry is not only the hardest hit but will probably never return to what it was before even if the virus COVID-19 weakens. Perhaps, if there will be a successful vaccine, the sex industry that we know may return.
The medical protocols for preventing the spread of COVID-19 are also the ones preventing the sex industry or prostitution from functioning as it does traditionally.
What with the de rigueur wearing of facemask, face shield and social distancing. How can any prostitute and her/his customer do what they’re supposed to do at the risk of catching COVID-19? Suddenly your usual sexually transmitted disease seems like a harmless itch.
The sad part is, due to the unique and intimate nature of the service sex workers offer, they can’t even work from home even if they wanted to.
So how do the displaced sex workers describe themselves when applying as SAP (Social Amelioration Program) beneficiary? A formal or informal economy worker?
Are they even qualified for the SAP?
Has the government taken into consideration the plight of the displaced sex workers? If not, then it’s high time that they do. After all, these people are not only citizens of the republic; they have families and dependents to feed.
Bayanihan Act 1 has already expired we are now into Bayanihan Act 2. Will the displaced sex workers still be ignored?
Stop the hypocrisy and save the displaced sex workers./PN
