There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statistics.

Here's an absolute gem of an example of what happens when an unchecked number escapes onto the respectable end of the Internet:

"There are 800,000 prostitutes in the Philippines"

My, the place must be heaving with them! There is a population of 103 million or so, and we've got about 28 million girls and women between 15 and 54:

http://www.indexmundi.com/philippine...s_profile.html

… so if 800,000 of them are ladies of negotiable affection, that is one woman in 35 - which could perhaps be believable, though it seems high to me.

But where does it come from? We start with Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostit...es#cite_note-2

"Prostitution in the Philippines is illegal. It is a serious crime with penalties ranging up to life imprisonment for those involved in trafficking. It is covered by the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.[1] Prostitution is sometimes illegally available through brothels (also known as casa), bars, karaoke bars (also known as KTVs), massage parlors, street walkers and escort services. As of 2009[update], one source estimated that there were 800,000 women working as prostitutes in the Philippines, with some of them believed to be underage.[2]"

Well, that seems fair enough, but let's follow link (2) above... if we do, we get to this:

http://www.havocscope.com/number-of-...e-philippines/

which in turn gets us to this:

http://www.dw.de/philippines-women-s...ty/a-4465029-1

… and we find that the number is just plucked out of the air by two writers for Deutsche Welle TV, who appear to think that "Davao is the Philippines largest city"

(it's the fourth largest, see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._by_population)

the two then go on to assert that half their "eight hundred thousand" are under age - that's four hundred thousand underage prostitutes.

My, what a depraved place!

This number seems to have been just made up, as is their assertion that "prostitution is the Philippines fourth largest source of foreign exchange" (how would anybody know that?) and their assertion that this "is a huge sum for a nation whose foreign debt is constantly rising" (it isn't - the Philippines' foreign debt is rather low, at 31% of GDP , less than half of what it was a few years earlier, and the Philippines has recently been upgraded to investment grade by the major credit agencies, for what that's worth).

Conclusion - it's utter nonsense. The biggest centre of the sex trade in the Philippines is acknowledged to be Clark, whichis said to have around 8,000 ladies of negotiable affection. Now eight thousand tarts is quite a lot, but a hundred times that number? Seems doubtful to me.

And it's quite a slur on a nation and its women, which undoubtedly contributes to the ill treatment of Filipinas in other countries, because they are seen as "easy".

How about an apology and a retraction, Deutche Welle?

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

Well caught.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

Umm, they are actually quite correct but you've assumed they're measuring by population. In fact Davao is the largest city in the world in terms of land area.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

To me,the numbers seem low.
I have absolutely no facts or statistics to back that up..
Just a gut feeling.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

Thanks.

It looks like that was the mistake that they made - they just googled "largest city" and didn't spot that Davao was largest by area.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

here's a way of looking at it:

If one woman in 35 between the ages of 15 and 54 is a lady of negotiable affection, and we can reasonably assume that relatively ladies under the age of 18 (the legal age of consent) or over the age of, say, thirty, are "on the game", then

54-15 = 39

30-18 = 12

so one woman in 12 between 18 and 30 is a tart.

That looks way too high, to me.

"Working girls" tend to be visible, and in the Philippines anyway remarked on as such by ladies of non-negotiable virtue, so they are more visible than most.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

I saw a similar made up number for Thailand - "two million"!

that would mean that one Thai woman in five between 18 and 30 is a tart.

There simply could not be enough customers!

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

My gut feeling is that pure math is not the be all and end all of how a European or an American or an Australian should calculate and define the number of Prostitutes in an Asian country like the Philippines...
Here, there are far more cultural variables that are far too hard to understand (for me) that would make a mathematic equation almost impossible..
What I mean is..Define "Prostitute" here in the R.P!!
I know young single (and married) foreigners and Filipino`s here that can go to the mall tomorrow and pick up 2/3 girls that have never worked in a bar from a mall and have them all in a bed by lunch time..
So he gives them an allowance and his cell phone number..Does that make them prostitutes?? Not really sure.
Im pretty sure they would be around him like bees around a honey pot if he them sent one of them a single text a week later and I have seen Filipino`s act in exactly the same fashion.
I live here and I observe this behaviour all the time..
Here in Bohol,there are very few KTV bars and ZERO girly bars but there are 15 plus short time hotels with secret drive ins that are packed out 24 hours a day..
As I say.. Its just a gut feeling that the figure is low.
Of course I could be wrong.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

I worked in Malaysia with Thai men and when they had to do the "visa run" back home, they all told me of their escapades. I had the feeling that, away from the obvious tourist traps, the majority of horizontal mambo was carried out by Thais. I suppose this is pretty obvious when you take the tourists out of the equation.
I worked in Asia for a while and have friends who married Thai ladies. The men told me that many Thai men know full well that their wives make money away from their home these ways.

I think that the girls from the provinces in the Philippines live a completely different life from the city girls.
My wife wears very conservative clothes when she goes home and has her "sexy shoes" ready for her city time.
Prostitution is rife in the city in Phils, many taxi drivers will ask you if you want a woman if you ask him or not.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

It's fair to say that many customers of "love hotels" and "motels" are married couples getting away from their ever-present children.

I sometimes suspect that there is a "double standard" in the Philippines in another way - women on one side, men on the other. Women see sex as a way to get their own back on the male sex in general, and at the same time they compete with each other to steal one another's men.

Kay remembers that, as a teenager, her school in Molave (very very provincial!) put on a dance performance of the usual kind, for a graduation or the fiesta or something, and her mother came to see her in it, but went to great lengths to make sure that her father did not, because the costume she had to wear exposed her thighs and midriff and her father would have been outraged and, she says, would have jumped up on the stage and hauled her off it - her mother was not at all concerned.

Beyond all possible doubt, most prostitution in the Philippines concerns the local market, not tourists, and I am told that the same goes for Cambodia and Thailand.

As for China, the city of Dongguan is almost certainly the biggest centre for commercial sex on the planet at present, and you'd be amazed at how many "sales conventions" take place there.

This is quite entertaining:

http://www.danwei.org/magazines/dongguan_iso_services.php

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

The observations in your post seem to square with my own.
In regards men taking their wives to a short time joint though..I reckon they are still in the minority..
For those that do though...
How romantic is that!!

My Mrs is in Manila at present but is back next week..
I think you have given me an idea that she may never forget!!
Happy to add in a positive way to the statistics!!

Cheers!!!

Januarius.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

The Philippines has one of the lowest incidences of AIDS in the world; and that is in a country where you cannot walk into a chemist and buy a condom. That be another made-up statistic but does appear in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_HIV/AIDS_adult_prevalence_rate

I am sure that many of the younger prostitutes do that work in order to support poor parents and even extended families, travelling from the provinces to cities with many of them hiding the true nature of their work. Some may also have dreams of finding a 'rich' foreign husband, in the process.

The internet has enabled many girls, who would have fallen into prostitution, a way of earning better money without even having to meet clients. There are dozens of cam-girls sites on the world wide web and, whilst degrading, there is no chance of venereal disease.

I just typed Cam Girls into Google and the first website was http://www.camgirls.com/ Surprising, that on the front page, just how many girls are from the USA! But clicking on 'Asian' leads to 111 girls on-line - and most of those coming from the Philippines!

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

That is a very interesting, and to me a very suspect, statistic, Howerd. The Philippines has, like Thailand, a great many ladies of negotiable affection, but unlike Thailand the Philippines has no large scale AIDS prevention programme; this is of course because of the baleful influence of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. I strongly suspect that a great many people who ought to have been tested, have not been, and the actual rate of HIV infection is much higher.

I will happily admit that from time to time I have set foot in girlie bars, both the "foreigner" type and the "local" type, and I think the other source of recruitment into prostitution is the break up of a relationship, with a young woman fleeing an abusive boyfriend or husband and having to take care of a small child.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

I am sure that the Catholic Church does have an influence on many statistics. No doubt many prostitutes (and others) who have caught Aids go undiagnosed because healthcare had to be paid for. A sense of shame would prevent many seeking help and they well may be some cover-up by authorities of the true numbers.

Like you say, having a child and an abusive husband is one scenario that can lead a woman to prostitution. The other way out is to find a husband/lover/sugar daddy that can support her, whatever the reason for her financial state, in a country with little or no welfare benefits. Many such relationships are doomed to failure which can leave the man to thinking he has become the victim of circumstances. I don't suppose there any any statistics for that though.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

Obviously,this is not correct. They have been available in local Chemists for many years.
These days they can be found next to the chewing gum in any shopping mall drinks counter!

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

No, you buy them at the 7-11 or a supermarket, sometimes displayed near the till.

Although the Philippine does have an increasing AIDS burden there was relatively early response with sexworkers being given condoms and shown how to put them on a client - sometimes without the client actually being immediately aware.

Also, there was close monitoring in the late 80s and early 90s by the US due to the high number of US military personnel at places like Angeles and Subic Bay.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

You most certainly can walk into a chemist and buy condoms and have been able to do so at least as far back as 2006.

Re: There are lies, damned lies, and statistics - and then there are made up statisti

There a municipality, Alabang I think, where the local government laws required a doctor's prescription in orser to buy condoms and purchasers had to sign a register.