What is independence but the freedom from the domination and control of others? Freedom is firstly an inner, non-material spiritual value. The desire for it is a natural right and when achieved, it is a joyful experience. The freedom to practice our religious beliefs and to be freed from chains and bondage, the freedom of expression and to live in dignity free from poverty and fear are the greatest values of being human. They are universal human rights.
 

We live in a new age of freedom of expression, when the long history of suppression and covering up of the truth is crumbling and social and mainstream media have championed the voice of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. The controlling power and influence of some leaders in traditional institutions like the Catholic Church to instill fear, bury the realities, deny crimes of child abuse and silence the complainants are being challenged, and their credibility has weakened.
 

The Avila sex bar in Calapandayan, Subic town, Zambales, has been closed with a steel gate since the hand of justice came to that place when we rescued young girls from sex slavery and the domineering  power of the owner, 49-year-old Arthur David Benjamin, of the United States of America (US), on 6 February 2013.
 

`We all love being connected to the Internet and it is a wonderful technology for communicating, providing information and entertainment, and keeping people connected. Commerce and business is totally dependent on it what with e-mail, conferencing, communication, document transmission in which it is essential and has saved countless number of trees with the reduction in the use of paper.
 

We read and see reports about the terrible number of child sexual assaults and how few perpetrators ever get convicted. That is changing with the appointment of highly trained female judges to the Philippine family courts. 
 
One day in September 2013, Rosie, a 12-year-old child, but with a mental age of five or six, was grabbed by the live-in partner of her mother, slapped in the face and sexually assaulted. Rosie cried out with the physical pain.
 

There are 16,000 or more Filipinos living and working in Ireland, and earning just and good wages. There are 4,265 that are nurses and thousands more who are caregivers and other professionals. They are welcomed, trusted and highly respected and they send their hard-earned money back to the Philippines to support their families. 
 

Police in many nations that are fighting back against the paedophiles who sexually exploit children online are having remarkable success. 
 
Paedophiles and child pornographers, despite hiding on the dark web and using encryption software, are being caught in increasing numbers. They abuse children online and send thousands of pictures of them each other over the Internet. 
 

It surrounds us. It is in every place we go, on the street, on the beach or the woods. We see it when we climb a mountain or go for a swim. It is there, evidence of our willful neglect or ingenious inventiveness. It is our own man-made friend and already a destructive enemy. It is causing much permanent and irreversible harm to us and also to the creatures of the planet. Yes, you guessed it, it is plastic.
 

Jessica was a lost child wandering the streets of a Philippine city, picked up by a human trafficker and brought to different places where she was sold as a commodity to foreign sex tourists to be abused. 
 
She didn’t know what was happening to her at 14 years of age. She was raped, exploited and robbed of her virginity. She became angry at the world and felt she was nothing and had nothing. She felt she had no future, no present and no past life.