On October 5, 2008, Davao City celebrated the “No Prostitution Day” for the fourth time. In deference to the celebration, Mindanao Times ran an editorial entitled “Day of No Prostitution campaign.” “A day of no prostitution,” Mindanao Times noted, “includes…no prostitution occurring in massage parlors, on the streets, in hotels or everywhere else.” But it was ironic that as the city was celebrating the No Prostitution Day, one sector seemed oblivious to it: The sector of the prostitutes.
How have I come to know this? Strangely enough, the day of the celebration was also the day we interviewed Cathy (not her real name), a 16-year old girl who is working as a prostitute for over four years now. Our group—an all male group of three—was doing then a case study on child prostitution as a requirement in our major subject, Social Studies.
Tionko Ave. when night falls.
Cathy seemed like a hopeless case. But like most girls her age, she has a dream, too. “I want to be a nurse someday,” Cathy said. Her dream, I think, is never a question if she can be a nurse but when.
It was about 2:00 o’clock in the morning when we left Tionko Ave. One question lingered in my mind: Were Cathy and her patrons aware that the city just celebrated the No Prostitution Day? But I didn’t bother to ask her. The answer was right under my nose.
Onyot's Trip 