Fish in a bubble, Star in a bowl.

Apparently, I have not deleted all my previous blogs, one survived! The entry below is written January 19th of 2007. I hope I didn’t suck as much. Writing is not one of my strongest points, hee hee. And!!! My economics! So first year, hahaha.

Prosti, puta, pokpok. These are some of the derogatory words used to categorize sex workers, prostitutes. Go out at night and in dark alleys you will see ladies in skimpy outfits with “agents” haggling for the price of a “pleasurable night”. The oldest profession in the world, prostitution has evolved into different forms. From cybersex to escort service to the usual pick-me-up type, name it and you have it. Prostitution is written in the bible, in literary texts, in history. Mary Magdalene, Cleopatra, Keanna Reeves. You might be wondering what an article about prostitution is doing in my overly dramatic blog. Well, aside from trying to grow up and make a little sense, I was moved by an ACLE (Alternative Classroom Learning Experience), a half -day activity every semester in UP. With some friends, we attended a quite intriguing ACLE somewhere in the School of Economics. The title was really catchy, “PROSTI DIALOGUE: ECONOMICS OF PROSTITUTION”. A presentation organized by ETC (Economics Towards Consciousness). Guest speakers were broadcast journalist, Che Che Lazaro, one of The Probe’s producers, and SE professor, Dr. Orville Solon. A Probe documentary entitled “Magdalena ng Lansangan” was shown followed by lectures and an open forum.

Basically, Ms. Lazaro’s talk was about how prostitutes are victims. How lack of opportunity, little or no education, and poverty contribute to a woman’s inclination to sell flesh. She talked about some of the root causes of rampant prostitution in the country.The lack of opportunities forces the women to jobs THEY WOULD NOT HAVE LIKED TO CHOOSE.

Lack of education makes people a lot easier to lure into a lucrative proposition of a high-paying job. This is also the reason why not all ask the right questions-because they do not know how and what to ask.

Poverty also makes a person desperate. And the first offer of a “good” job will be immediately grabbed.

And the vicious cycle of prostitution. A prostitute will not get out of the market until she comes to her senses. A seemingly impossible, or if not a little too late, action. Or, someone will rescue her out of the business. A prostitute somehow gets used to her job, may it be illegitimate and dehumanizing. Just like drugs, even though a person knows how bad it is, once he gets started, stopping is a difficult act. Prostitution is easy money, after all. Some might say given a chance they’ll get back to school and try to earn their life back. But then again, that seemingly is lip service. Why? In school, you don’t get to earn 500 bucks a night. In school, you won’t have quick money. By going to school, you can’t put food in the mouth of your family. Being into the business is quite addictive. The tendency of some is to enjoy the easy money they are getting. Then they’ll slowly realize how degrading their job is and yet stopping is not an option because of economic problems so they will turn to drugs and thus, enters another vicious phase. And to and further insult to injury they are not just victimized by their clients, but by the police and society as well.

Dr. Solon, however, addressed the lecture in a different perspective-an economic approach. He derived formulas to determine how the prostitutes and the clients arrive at an equilibrium market price. He also posed questions before the start of his talk, namely:

Can the market be expected to promote safe commercial sex?

What market oriented policy intervention can be introduced to promote safe commercial sex?

The formulas he derived are as follow:


Pmin=w+yo+ppZp

Where: π is the probability of getting STD
Z is the prostitute’s life

Minimum price of sexual services is equal to reservation wage plus the money value of disutility from commercial sex plus expected loss from getting infected with sexually transmitted diseases.


Pmax=fo-pcZc

Maximum price the client is willing to pay is equal to the money value of sexual gratification less the expected loss from STD infection.


Pmin≤P*≤Pmax (Pmin is less than or equal to P* is less than to Pmax)


P*=a(w+yo+ppZp) + (1-a)(fo-pcZc)


The equilibrium price is the relative “bargaining powers”, the client’s maximum willingness to pay for sex and the prostitute’s reservation fee.

He also gave figures from a survey made in 1989. According to the report, the fee paid to prostitutes is from 20pesos-7100. The age range is from 13 years old-39. And out of 735 interviewed, 27% had a college education and 37% had a previous legitimate job.

He then discussed his report regarding the safe sex premium, where markets appropriately respond to STD risk. And safe sex premium adjustments are client driven. But only foreign clients were found to be the source of safe sex premium. The latter statement could have been brought about by foreigners being more informed of the issue of safe sex and sexually transmitted diseases.

One student of the School of Economics then proceeded to discuss her thesis paper. According to her, there are reasons why prostitution is such a booming industry.

Differential returns: expected returns as illegal worker less the expected returns as legal worker, which is the minimum wage.

Family Size: inherent cause of prostitution. If a woman has a large family and is earning little to none at all could have been easily lured to a quick-paying job.

Again, the issue that arises here is poverty, the cause of all. In urban areas, the poverty threshold, as estimated by the National Statistical Coordination Board (http://nscb.gov.ph), was placed at P15, 001 in 2004, around 5.8 percent over the 2003 threshold of P14, 178. In rural areas, the poverty line went slightly faster by 7.3 percent from 11, 589 in 2003 to P12, 431 in 2004. All in all, so as not to be considered poor, a family of five had to have a regular source of income amounting to P65, 565 a year or P5, 464 per month, P182.13 a day. Try feeding five people three times a day with a hundred eighty bucks. That’s P36.43 per person a day. Then ask yourself why prostitutes, thieves, and criminals are everywhere.
The poverty threshold is ridiculous. It is not even livable! I make tipid all the time and yet 36 bucks?! Goodness. My credit consumption is at least P70 every five days. I allot P150 bucks for food in UP everyday. P36 is not even enough for my daily fare!

And yet, statistics have shown 44 percent of our total population lives beyond the poverty threshold!

Statistically speaking, we have low unemployment rate. 8.2 percent. With the new unemployment definition adopted per NSCB Resolution No. 15 dated October 20, 2004, the unemployed include all persons who are 15 years old and over as of their last birthday and are reported as (1) without work; AND (2) currently available for work; AND (3) seeking work OR not seeking work due to valid reasons. But then again, the Labor Force Participation Rate is only 64.9 percent in an April 2006 survey. So out of 55,393,000 15 years old and above, only 35, 954,000 is participating in the labor force. 33, 024,000 is employed or 91.8 percent. 8, 401, 000 is underemployed or a whopping 25.4 percentage. Total unemployed persons numbered 2.93 million in April 2006, up by 0.7 percent over last year’s record of 2.91 million.

And then we have the issue of wages. The minimum wage is from P313 for the agricultural sector and P350 for the non-agricultural ones. And you have to pay for the electric bills, water bills, rent, education, food, and the basic physiological needs! Now, are we still surprised with how the prostitution industry grew rapidly?

Then we can discuss the issue of legalization. As opposed to being part of the black market, prostitution can be legalized so as taxes be imposed. Voila! There’s additional revenue for the government.

Furthermore, imposition of taxes will definitely increase the price of sexual services being offered. The final burden of taxation will either go to the producers or to the consumers. Since prostitution caters a large part of the market it is logical to assume that the incidence of the tax will go to the consumers. Plus, the government can impose a sin tax, just like cigarettes and liquors. Is it not a good idea? The possibility of reducing the market is also present, since not everybody can afford the prostitutes anymore.

And yet, the costs outweigh the said benefits. Individual prostitutes, more often than not, have little or no choice over transactions. Most of them are abused by their pimps, agents, or floor managers. Most of them receive less than 15 percent of the client’s payments. Others are forced into prostitutions. The sex slaves are either threatened or beaten up. Legalization will definitely not protect these people. And of course, enforcement is the main issue here. The Philippines, in fairness, is recognized to have one of the best laws in the world. Unfortunately, in terms of implementing and enforcing these laws, we are one of the worst. However, we can also not legislate to stop prostitution, just like gambling. Prostitution is a social issue. We can’t just provide band-aid solutions. We have to address the root cause of the problem. It takes public awareness for one. The need for social change does not just stop with trying to end prostitution.

Prostitutes are victims of circumstances. Unlike us, they totally lack options to choose how to earn a living. They are helpless because society does not help them. I don’t recommend it. I am gulity of judging them and even blaming them. I also do not just blame the government for it. But then again, prostitution is just an effect. It is not the cause. Thus, focusing on stopping it will not really help at all. Education and anti-poverty programs are the keys to a stronger nation. Pardon the cliche, but really ignorance and desperation brought about by poverty make people do things they wouldn’t do given an opportunity not to. People are “kumakapit na sa patalim”. Dignity couldn’t feed them anyway.

P.S. Did you know the Tubero (insert name here) plates posted all over the planet, err, Philippines, are call boys?! Well, most of the time, that is. If you are lucky enough, you still might find a real tubero out there. Haha. Wala lang, Filipino ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.