 Police theorize official was beaten to death for rescuing trafficked women from bars and nightclubs
The murder on Aug. 7 in Kuala Lumpur of a senior Filipino social welfare attaché, Finardo Cabilao, once again points up Malaysia's ugly reputation as a destination, source and transit country for women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and men, women, and children as forced laborers.
The country remains on the US Department of State's Watch List for human trafficking amid allegations of complicity by government officials although earlier this month US Ambassador James R Kieth said Washington was "encouraged by Malaysia's energetic efforts to address human trafficking. The ministry managing women and families, he said, "is leading the efforts to deal with those who victimise women. I think Malaysia is doing a great deal to educate the public, raid those sites where women are being victimised, and repatriate the women after separating them from criminals and sheltering them before they are sent home," he said.
Investigators believe that Cabilao, 51, who was found bludgeoned to death a week ago in his flat in Kuala Lumpur, may have been killed by a trafficking syndicate for his work in coordinating with Malaysian authorities for raids and rescue operations in bars and nightclubs, the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs said Sunday in Manila.
The Philippine official had been beaten repeatedly with blunt objects by more than one attacker, Malaysian news media reported. Police ruled out robbery as a motive as Cabilao's cash and valuables including his camera and laptop were left behind by the murderers. Witnesses said they had heard a heated argument in his apartment the day he was killed.
Philippine senior state prosecutor Severino Gana told The Straits Times that the day before the murder he had briefly met with Cabilao at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur to discuss a case in which the Philippines Department of Justice's Task Force on people trafficking had arranged for two Filipino witnesses to testify. Cabilao, Gana said, had recently organized the rescue of several Filipinas, which may have made him the target of trafficking syndicates.
In an explosive report dated April 2, 2009, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations reported that Burmese migrants are often arrested by Malaysian authorities, have their personal belonging confiscated and kept by the officials, and delivered to human traffickers who issue ransom demands on an individual basis. Those unable to pay are sold to a variety of business interests ranging from fishing boats to brothels.
"Allegations received by the committee from migrants, spanning years of personal experience, are similar to reports issued by NGOs and human rights activists," the committee report said. "Migrants state that freedom is possible only once money demands are met. Specific payment procedures are outlined, which reportedly include bank accounts in Kuala Lumpur to which money should be transferred."
Malaysian government officials, the report said, "continually deny such allegations. As reported recently in the Malaysia Star, ‘‘(former) Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar also denied claims that thousands of illegal foreigners held at detention centres were ‘‘being sold off'' to human trafficking syndicates. ‘I take offence with the allegation because neither the Malaysian Government nor its officials make money by selling people.' ''
Malaysia, according to the US State Department's 2008 Report on Human Trafficking, "is a destination country for migrants from a wide range of countries including Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.), the Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam to work." Some, the report said, "are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude by Malaysian employers in the domestic, agricultural, construction, plantation, and industrial sectors. Some migrant workers are victimized by their employers, employment agents, or traffickers that supply migrant laborers and victims of sex trafficking."
Some women recruited as female domestics from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Mongolia, and China have been forced into the sex trade after being deceived with promises of jobs or after running away from abusive employers, the report continued. Individual employment agents allegedly sold women and girls into brothels, karaoke bars, or passed them to sex traffickers.
In its 2008 report, the US government did note that while Malaysia doesn't comply with the minimum standards, "it is making significant efforts to do so." The country, the report said, was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts from the previous year to tackle its large and multidimensional trafficking problem, including its forced labor problem. The government, the report said, enacted comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation in July 0f 2007 and has worked to train key law enforcement officers and social workers.
However, the report said, the government, "did not yet take action against exploitative employers or labor traffickers during the reporting period. The government has not yet widely implemented mechanisms to screen victims of trafficking from vulnerable groups." Despite ample reporting by non-governmental organizations of trafficking, the report said, "Malaysian authorities did not respond with criminal investigations or prosecutions regarding the alleged offenses."
The government and the United Malays National Organisation, the lead ethnic party, continues to paint itself as a strongly religious country. Nonetheless, "there were no visible measures taken by the government to reduce demand for commercial sex or to raise consciousness about child sex tourism," the report said.
"It is unfair to put us back on the list as we are doing our best," Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Abu Seman Yusop told reporters in 2007. "We will have to consider our next action in opposing the re-listing of our country on the blacklist," he added.
Abu Seman said the Malaysian government did not condone human trafficking and had taken stern action to deal with the problem, including enacting an anti-human trafficking law in 2007 and setting up a special task force.
Cabilao was a major force in attempting to protect Filipino women in Malaysia, officials in Manila said. He often joined raids by Malaysian police and, according to news media, "Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Victoriano Lecaros said Cabilao was often restrained by co-workers from going too far in his advocacies or doing too much in his work for distressed Filipinas.
Kuala Lumpur CID chief Ku Chin Wah told The Straits Times that police were still investigating, and ruled out robbery. He said there were signs of a fight and a quarrel. Ku added that the police knew Cabilao was dealing with Filipino workers, and were investigating all angles, including the human trafficking one.
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