kyig6809@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Ken Ilio) (01/15/91)
The Women's Education Development Productivity and Research Organization (WEDPRO) reported recently on its survey of 300 prostituted women in the cities of Angeles and Olongapo which host the US military bases. The report entitled, "Women Entertainers in Angeles and Olongapo, A Survey Report", was based on the responses of 300 respondents, 150 from each city, who were registered or non-registered practicioners. The report contends that although the US bases in these areas act as a natural magnet for the growth women for hire industries, other socio-economic factors are at play in the recruitment of women into prostitution. These factors which characterize the lives of the majority of the respondents are: poverty, large family size (most women came from families larger than the national average which is about 5.6), early marriage or live-in relationships which broke up because of their male partners' drinking, gambling, philandering, and violence. Twenty six women reported that they had been raped previous to their employment as entertainers. The report also gives a profile of the prostituted women. She is barely out of her teens and may be a woman who works in a night club, a "casa" (house), or as a streetwalker. In Angeles, a street walker earns an average close to 4000 pesos a month (1 US$ = 28 Pesos, official rate, black-market rate could be upwards 30 pesos or so); a casa worker about 2000 pesos a month and a night club worker just slightly 1500 pesos a month. They keep gruelling hours, with casa workers entertaining an average of four customers a night; streewalkers servicing two to three customers a night; bar women entertaining one customer a night on top of other duties like dancing on-stage, waitressing and bar-tending. They are constantly subjected to violence from customers and economic exploitation of club and casa owners or pimps who often determine the amount they earn. Because of these conditions, these women are particularly prone to alcohol and other types of drug abuse. Not surprisingly, most women can only stay in this profession for about three years. Source: Health Alert No. 111. --------- Ken Ilio Vet. Biosciences UIUC