Filipino Women

The Philippines has something in excess of four million visitors a year. A large proportion of those are what they call sex tourists. I assume that means mostly male visitors coming here for the bar girls, lady boys and unfortunately child prostitution.

One of the more positive reasons for visitors here is for romance. Many Filipino women are choosing to find their partners overseas. Greater financial security is an obvious reason and having seen the poverty that many live here you can understand that. But I believe that most do marry for love.

The Filipino woman is remarkable. They are the backbone of this wonderful country.  10% of income of this country comes from OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers). Women make up the majority of OFW’s working as domestic helpers and care givers across the world.

Even the lowest paid OFW earn twice as much as the average wage earner in the Philippines, so the benefits are obvious and families back home are looked after. Generations of children unfortunately are taken care of by their father’s and other relatives while their mother’s are absent for two years at a time.

The women back home are very hard working and very resourceful. I would think the men here wouldn’t survive if the women went on strike.  It is the women who do all the cooking and cleaning and organise the households. Quite often it is only the women who work. For men here the main activities seem to be drinking, singing karaoke, cock fighting, playing pool and playing mah-jong.

I wouldn’t say it’s an unequal society, as both men and women seem to have their defined roles, and men are not completely lazy as I may be portraying, but I think they know when they get married so much is taken care of for them.

Pinay women are some of the most beautiful women in the world. The history of these islands gives the people an Asian-European mixture. Their culture of warmth, hospitality, generosity and loyalty is the perfect blend to make anyone feel welcome.

Unfortunately the seedy side of this nation brings down the reputation of the beautiful Pinay. Prostitution and pornography in all its forms leaves the foreigner with completely the wrong impression of the Philippines. Previously this used to take the form of street prostitution and girlie bars, but now also is in the form of 100’s of webcam sites on the internet. In these sites women are paid for performing sexual acts. It is estimated that 200,000 women in the Philippines earn money this way; Many of those underage.

The Philippine government is correct in making sure that pornography is illegal and imprisoning anybody who makes money in this way. It should be actively discouraged and in particular those tourists who chose to come here and solicit prostitution should in the least be deported. There are currently international agreements with many countries now that those who involve themselves in child prostitution and paedophilia can now be prosecuted in their own country for any activities in the Philippines and I would also completely support that.

The Filipino woman gives love and respect and her natural caring nature and should be given back the same amount of respect and love.