Angeles, 80 kilometres from Manilla (Philippines) is known world wide for sexual tourism. Regulars know the speciality : the girlfriend experience. Those who go there, mainly Koreans, Japanese, Americans, Australians and New Zealanders, live, for a few hours or several days, the illusion of sharing moments of intimacy with â??a girlfriendâ??. They are to be found in the hundred and more bars on Fieldâ??s Avenue, where these young women, often under- age, dance almost naked in their hundreds, before coming to entice the client, under the strict gaze of the Mama San. Thus, for a bar fine of 1000 to 1500 pesos (15 to 25 Euros) paid at the bar, the client can take the young prostitute wherever he wants and play at being an ordinary couple, complete with money-grubbing lies, jealous scenes and make-believe. His girlfriend on his arm, he can also go to a hotel, a restaurant, a swimming-pool or another bar to choose one or more other girls to join them. All this with no protection and no abortions, which are illegal in the Philippines and frowned on by the prostitutes themselves.
Between twelve and fifteen thousand young girls are employed in these bars, carefully listed in various tourist guides, handed out free in the hotels and restaurants of the town. Although prostitution is officially prohibited in the Philippines, the police only intervene to enforce short term closures, mainly intended to re-negotiate the corruption tariffs. And the young girls are declared and registered as dancersâ?¦
The prostitutes in Angeles mainly come from the surrounding villages, but 20% are thought to live in the poor areas of the town. Large numbers of girls from Pampang , the main shanty town of Angeles, have worked, do work and will work in the bars on Fieldâ??s Avenue.
Large scale prostitution in Angeles arose from its proximity to the largest American base built outside the USA : Clark Base. Set up in 1903, it was shut down in 1991. All that remains of this long presence is shop signs, an immense military cemetery and a few left- over soldiers. The activity and the myth have lived on since the base shut down. Tourists have replaced soldiers and large numbers of children born of the girlfriend experience still seek their father.
