Cut in DOJ anti-trafficking budget may affect tier 1 rating —official

The cut in the budget of the anti-trafficking enforcement program of the Department of Justice may affect the standing of the Philippines in the fight to end human trafficking, an official said Tuesday.

During the hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian asked the Department of Justice whether the cut to the budget of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Enforcement program will affect the country's standing in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report.

The budget for the program was reduced to P59 million in the National Expenditure Program from the allocation for this year of P90 million.

“It could affect our standing because it will put us in a worse position to do our job,” Justice Undersecretary Nicky Ty said.

In the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report, the Philippines was classified Tier 1, a status it has maintained since 2016.

The US State Department said Tier 1 indicates that "a government has made efforts to address the problem" that meet the "minimum standards" of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

Ty said the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking and the DOJ will need an increased budget to combat human trafficking, online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, and other related crimes.

“On top of that, we have added need for training because under the NEP, I understand that our training budget was completely slashed. So we hope that the training budget can be restored to what it was before,” Ty said.

“Aside from training, another item that was completely slashed was our confidential funds from 2022. We hope that this can be restored as well,” he added.

Gatchalian asked the DOJ to submit its justification to the committee for a possible increase of the budget to meet the 2022 GAA.

Under the NEP, the DOJ proposed a budget of P26.6 billion. The budget was approved at the Committee level. — BM, GMA News