Defunct LV firm targeted in Philippine sex tour probe

David Strow

Tuesday, March 21, 2000 | 10:26 a.m.

A Filipino government official is targeting a defunct Las Vegas tour company as part of an investigation of the Philippines' underground sex tour industry.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chairwoman of the Philippines' Senate tourism committee, said Sunday she planned to probe the activities of Las Vegas-based Bushwhackers, as well as three other U.S. tour agencies believed to be operating sex tours in the Asian nation.

"Offhand, we believe the allegations against the four firms are very serious and certainly worth looking into," the Manila Times quoted Legarda as saying.

Other U.S. companies that will be probed include Big Apple Oriental Tours of New York, G&F Tours of Miami Beach, Fla., and Philippine Adventure of Ventura, Calif.

The agencies were targeted after Equality Now, a nonprofit New York advocacy group for women's issues, named the operators in a presentation at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The panel discussed ways to clamp down on the global sex trade.

One of the biggest concerns of the organization is that many women working in the Philippines' sex industry -- as many as 30 percent -- are under the age of 18, said Ken Franzblau, director of Equality Now's trafficking campaign.

"All these companies will deny underage women," Franzblau said. "What they'll say is, women in bars ... all have to be licensed. The fact is, everyone knows those licenses are easy to obtain, and a lot of women are not 18 years old.

"It creates a demand for women to work in prostitution. (Prostitution) is illegal and widely practiced."

According to company brochures obtained by Equality Now, Bushwhackers offered 10-day package tours of the Philippines for $599 and provided local guides to help visitors find prostitutes.

"We can't take action against the U.S.-based firms, but we certainly can take action against their correspondent travel agencies here in Manila," Legarda said. "Once we've identified their Philippine agents, and once we've verified the reports against them, we can ask the respective local governments to take administrative actions against them, such as the revocation of their business permits and licenses."

Equality Now will assist those efforts, Franzblau said, by providing any information it is able to gather on the agencies' operations in the United States, including times of scheduled tours and copies of promotional materials.

Bushwhackers' license was issued in 1996, according to Las Vegas business licensing records. Officials with the company could not be reached for comment. Its license is currently listed as "out of business," and both telephone lines are disconnected.