CONVICTION in trafficking in persons (TIP) cases went down this year compared to the past five years, data provided by the Department of Justice yesterday showed.
From 49 conviction in 2016, the numbers went down to 25 from January to June this year though Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar attributed this to the late submission of data from the courts to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), of which the DOJ is one of the member-agencies.
“The submissions for convictions and other data usually come at the end of the year. Some courts don’t submit data midyear,” Aglipay-Villar explained.
“Some even submit very late. We received some submissions for 2020 data around March already. That is why our numbers keep on changing sometimes,” she added.
In 2017, there were 69 TIP convictions, 129 in 2018, 89 in 2019 and 92 last year.
The data showed that 28 individuals were convicted in TIP cases since January this year compared to 85 in 2020, 100 in 2019, 101 in 2018, 63 in 2017 and 60 in 2016.
Earlier, the IACAT inked an agreement with the Supreme Court through the Office of the Court Administrator to boost policies and programs against human trafficking.
