In the third quarter of 2024, more than half of the country’s population (6 out of 10) claimed to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) that their families are “poor”, the highest in more than 16 years. The last time this was reported was in 2008, during Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s administration.
And so at this point of the administration of Bongbong Marcos (the Jr. of the former dictator), only very few people can claim that life isn’t getting harder – e.g. those running HIV treatment hubs that collect the full ₱39,500 allocation per PLHIV from PhilHealth through the OHAT Package even if they do not provide actual services. Because nowadays, we know there’s money (e.g. millions were spent to fly Duran Duran to “serenade” Marcos during his September birthday), but we also know money only moves among the well-off, powerful, opportunists, et cetera. Because – in a gist – life is getting harder (as if it’s not hard already) for everyone.
Allow me to bring up what is possibly a new indicator of exactly how hard life has become, which is quite particular to the LGBTQIA community (particularly among gay, bisexual, as well as transgender people): The unbelievable number of men who are targeting these LGTQIA people in selling sex online.
I have lost count of the number of Facebook pages/GCs I have seen featuring them. And yes, sex work (including prostitution) has been with us for ages. And yes, too, sex work has long shifted online. This was always apparent – e.g. check OF. But just because it’s commonplace doesn’t mean that the number of karaniwang tao that now sells sexual services because of hardships no longer astounds – i.e. it doesn’t lessen the shock for me seeing (via Facebook, Twitter/X, et cetera) young men who need to make money to have allowance for school; or to buy milk for their starving child; or pay hospital bills; or earn money to pay for fare to go back to some province.
The desperation is almost palpable. Thus the willingness to do something so drastic.
Yes, sex work is work. But selling sex because you have no option isn’t work; that’s exploitation.
Oo, maramin ring bakla, bi at trans people ang abusado, ang mapagsamantala. Alam na ngang naghihirap, hindi na lang tulong ang ibibigay; instead, abuse of their more powerful positions ang nagaganap.But this is, definitely, a topic for another article.
Everything is stacked up against the poor, including these men. And their issues are interconnected. Coming from far-flung areas but came to Metro Manila to make a living, but without proper education, they can’t get proper jobs, which means they can’t get proper housing, and so they continue to starve.
No one can blame you for thinking this is a trope in films; a cliché of why we think people end up selling themselves. Alas… apparently, this is still the truth of so many. And we don’t have to look far; instead, we just have to see – really see – these men selling sex online to gay and bi men, and transgender women.
And that, too, is the first step to dealing with this: For us to see the emergence of these men who are ignored by service providers, and so are forced to become invisible even if they are in need of help. Tanga/tanga-tangahan – o sadyang abusado rin – ang ayaw itong makita as an indicator that, oo, yung buhay sa Pilipinas ay pahirap nang pahirap.
