HOUSE Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo First District Rep. Janette Garin on Friday urged the government to look into the reasons of the high numbers of children who are being exploited online to earn money.

The statement was made after the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) revealed that the Philippines ranks second in the world on the matters of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC)

“This is alarming. Edukasyon ang dapat ibinibigay sa mga bata at hindi dapat ganito ang nararanasan nila. We need to look into why the Philippines seem to be an easy target,” Garin said on Friday.

The lawmaker stressed that the government must act upon the situation and emphasized that it “should not be reduced to mere data and statistics.”

This is a calling for a whole of nation approach. Awareness is very important to prevent the prevalance of child exploitation and illegal acts,” Garin said.

The House appropriations committee vice chairperson said it is vital to give full support to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to detect and catch the perpetrators of the illegal acts.

Earlier, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy said that they lack necessary tools in order to identify the perpetrators of the crimes.

Garin also expressed her gratitude to House Speaker Martin Romualdez for immediately responding on the issue and for his commitment to fund National Coordinating Center against OSAEM and CSAEM.