Revolutionizing Feminism by Anne E Lacsamana

Author:Anne E Lacsamana [Lacsamana, Anne E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781317252740
Google: 5w3vCgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 27890751
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

PROSTITUTED WOMEN

Revisiting the Sex Work Debates in Feminist Theory

Tourism, a big dollar earner for the country, has had for its main attraction and commodity the Filipino woman.

—Aida F. Santos, Do Women Really Hold Up Half the Sky?

In addition to the labor export program, another important cornerstone of Philippine “development” during the Marcos period was the promotion of tourism as a means to generate foreign exchange. For Ferdinand Marcos, both the economic and political benefits of tourism were crucial to ensuring his stronghold over the country throughout his dictatorship. As evidence of this, the Ministry of Tourism was established in 1973, one year after the declaration of martial law, and was headed by a close ally, Jose Aspiras. With the help of loans obtained from the World Bank, the Ministry of Tourism oversaw the construction of “fourteen first-class hotels and a luxurious conference center in Manila at a cost of over $450 million” (Schirmer and Shalom 1987, 182). Though these building projects were excessive and at a great cost to the Philippine people, the regime felt that “luxurious accommodations and political stability generated good will among foreign business people and international bankers whose support [they] needed” (1987, 182). As it turns out, however, it was not the extravagant accommodations that became the central feature of Philippine tourism. Instead, the state used the “reputed beauty and generosity of Filipino women as ‘natural resources’ to compete in the international tourist market” (Enloe 1990, 38; Lacsamana 2004).

The commodification of Filipino women’s sexuality turned out to be a profitable marketing strategy, with various indicators revealing a direct correlation between the growth in prostitution throughout Manila and other popular tourist areas in the country and the rise in international tourism. Elizabeth Eviota explains that by the late 1970s, Philippine tourism was bringing in “$300,000,000, which [was] $262,000,000 more than in 1972” (1992, 137). By the mid-1980s, the majority of tourists in the Philippines were Japanese, Australian, and American men who had traveled to the country as part of a “sex tour.” Included in a typical sex tour package were brochures of women that men could select from, transportation to the various “girlie bars” throughout Manila, and accommodations at some of the most posh hotels either owned or financed by government officials. The collusion among top-ranking government officials, tour operators, and local law enforcement agencies enabled prostitution to flourish. Although the state repeatedly denied any connection between the increase in prostitution and the development of tourism as an “industry,” evidence to the contrary was overwhelming. Linda Richter explains that the administration’s lack of intervention in the sex trade included a “quid pro quo: unflinching support of the administration from the tourist industry” (1982, 143). For example, during the 1978 parliamentary election “Minister Aspiras called all major hotel and tour operators together … and pressured them to instruct their employees to vote for the administration, because the opposition would destroy the tourist industry” (1982, 143). Characteristic of the Marcos years, this level of corruption and bribery ensured his regime would remain in power and prostitution would remain untouched (Lacsamana 2004).

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