World | Philippines
New rules give teeth to drive against organ trafficking in Philippines
Authorities have issued rules that will make it more difficult for organ traffickers to take advantage of impoverished Filipinos by wooing them into selling their body parts.
- By Gilbert Felongco, Correspondent
- Published: 22:47 June 24, 2009
Manila: Authorities have issued rules that will make it more difficult for organ traffickers to take advantage of impoverished Filipinos by wooing them into selling their body parts.
Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said implementing guidelines on the "Trafficking of Persons for the Purpose of Removal or Sale of Organs" has taken effect on June 21, and aims to curb organ trafficking by imposing penalties on traffickers and individuals who take part in selling body parts illegally.
Earlier, medical authorities and other concerned groups expressed alarm as they feared that a number of poor Filipinos will end up having medical problems as they sell their organs to traffickers who take advantage of their poverty.
Most of the organ traffickers' victims are Filipinos from the slums who, due to abject poverty and lack of education, are easily conned by middlemen into selling their body parts for a relatively small fee.
Donating organs per se is not illegal under the country's law. However, under the new guidelines, the government can punish unscrupulous individuals or institutions that take advantage of other people's need and making a business out of it.
"With the implementing rules in place and enforceable, the duty and power of government to prosecute unscrupulous middlemen and other individuals who take advantage of the poor has gained more teeth," Blancaflor said.
Blancaflor said the Department of Social Welfare and Development had been given the task of monitoring the implementation of the rules and regulation on organ donations.
The implementing guidelines was in relation to a law signed last year by President Gloria Arroyo that details circumstances when Filipinos can be allowed to donate their organs.
The law states that organ traffickers can be imprisoned up to 20 years and fined not less than one million pesos (Dh76,200).
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