MATCHMAKING website based in the Philippines has stressed that it is engaged in the legitimate business of building a community for people seeking other people with same interests. It admitted however that some people have indeed tried to abuse it.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Monday ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate Internet matchmaking sites. He said that aside from facilitating marriage to foreign nationals, Internet matchmaking sites could also be fronts for "more nefarious activities such as trafficking in persons, especially women and children."

Responding to the government order, Mary Ann Go, marketing head of Philippine-based matchmaking website itzamatch.com, said, "Our objective is to use technology to match people. It is the new way of meeting people. Internet chats or online forums are also used to promote adult services. The company's goal and objective is good. But if we encounter bad activities, or members reporting abuses, we automatically block them."

With about 140,000 members, mostly from the Philippines, itzamatch.com is now building a community for Filipino singles. It was formerly known as match.ph until it was acquired by Bigfoot Global Solutions in 2003.

Gonzalez issued the order after Representative Joseph Santiago of Catanduanes sought an investigation into reports that more than 100,000 Filipino women are listed in the paid, US-based online service adultfriendfinder.com .

The justice secretary has asked the NBI to coordinate with the Department of Transportation and Communication and National Telecommunications Commission to look into the Internet-based matchmaking services. The NBI was given 15 days to submit the results of the investigation.
Unlike adultfriendfinder.com, which requires users to pay for its services, itzamatch.com is currently a free online service. It allows people to meet people who share the same interests after they register online.

Go said itzamatch.com is doing legitimate business in the country, including holding events to promote its service in the country.
Any content with sexual overtones is immediately taken down, and the subscriber given a warning, he added.

"Everybody is anonymous in this service. But some members post their pictures. What you do online here is completely anonymous However if a profile of a user has sexual overtones or [is] just plainly advertising sexual services, they are blocked from the service. If people pose pictures that are not appropriate, we automatically block them," Go said. The online matchmaking service is encouraging users to report abuse, he said.

"In all online businesses, there [is] always a small percentage of abuses. But you don't stop doing business with such activities. Right now, what we're doing is good for the Philippine community. In other countries, young people and professionals in Taiwan, South Korea, are using the Internet to find partners. This is the trend. This is going to happen in the Philippines. Even in online games, people play to meet people," Go said.

Itzamatch.com will soon start charging people when it hits its critical mass of users.
About 40 percent Filipino Internet users are ages 18 to 26. Many of these users are looking for people to meet, and the Internet is providing them a tool to meet more people, Go said.
Another Philippine-based matchmaking website was asked for comment but declined to be dragged into the issue. Catanduanes Representative Santiago urged government to put in checks on possible abuses by online matchmaking websites.

He stressed that Philippine laws prohibit online mail-order brides and human trafficking.
"Our laws have adequate provisions against Internet matchmaking when it involves (matching) Filipino women for marriage to foreigners. However, enforcement becomes complicated when the Internet site operators are foreign entities actually based overseas, with their servers also physically located outside the Philippines," Santiago said, noting that the Inter-agency Council against Trafficking has been tasked to enforce the Anti-Mail-Order Bride Act of 1990 and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

Online matchmaking for marriage is a perfectly legitimate business activity in other countries besides the Philippines, but it is a criminal offense to carry on a similar business that matches Filipino women for marriage to foreigners, he said. Itzamatch.com has denied engaging in mail-order bride services.

Meanwhile, Congressman Santiago has urged IACAT to distinguish between legitimate matchmakers and those merely fronting for illegal activities like the syndicated trafficking of women for white slavery and prostitution.
He said the IACAT should force the cooperation of legitimate Internet matchmakers to discourage abuses and increase awareness of the risks Filipino women face when subscribing to such online services.

"For instance, the IACAT can get matchmakers to post in their sites a forceful warning that Philippine laws penalize those engaged in the business of matching Filipino women for marriage to foreigners, and then link users to another site containing the full text of applicable (Philippine) laws," said a statement by the Catanduanes congressman.

Matchmakers should link Filipino women to other sites informing them of previous cases of abuse and the hazards they may face, it adds. "This is absolutely doable. In the US, for instance, legitimate Internet dating and matchmaking sites, or even exclusive chat rooms, sternly warn those seeking to register that it is a federal offense for a married person to pretend to be single," Santiago said.
IACAT represents heads of the departments of justice, social welfare, foreign affairs and labor, the immigration bureau, the National Police, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, and three private groups representing women, children, and overseas Filipino workers.

The Philippine Anti-Mail-Order Bride Law penalizes a person or entity that establishes or carries on a business for the purpose of matching Filipino women for marriage to foreigners either on a mail-order basis or via personal introduction.

It is also penalizes advertising, publishing, printing or distributing materials calculated to promote these prohibited acts; and the soliciting, enlisting or in any manner attracting or inducing a Filipino woman to join a club or association whose objective is to match women for marriage to foreigners either on a mail-order basis or via personal introduction for a fee.

Under the law, offenders face six to eight years imprisonment plus a fine of up to 20,000 pesos.
If the offender is a foreigner, he or she faces deportation and may be barred from entering the country after service of sentence and payment of the fine. The law was enacted in 1990. This was after many Filipino women lured by mail-order bride advertisements ended up being forced into prostitution. Others became battered wives or forced domestic laborers.

Many of the Filipino women victims were from poor provinces and lacked formal education.
The law was updated and strengthened by the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.