Poverty caused this innocent girl to drop out of school and sell her most precious gift to a total stranger

Despite the recent terrorist threats, AIDS and SARS, the Philippines is still one of the most popular tourist destinations in Southeast Asia. It’s a tropical island paradise with over 7000 islands, many of which have beautiful sandy beaches surrounded by crystal clear waters. But there’s also another reason why each year thousands of male tourists flock to the islands. They come here for sex.

The sex industry in the Philippines is one of the most thriving in Asia. Hundreds of bars, massage parlors, karaoke clubs and sex dens are situated throughout Metro Manila and it’s surrounding areas. All of these establishments are filled with beautiful tan skinned, almond eyed girls who practically all speak English and are more than ready, willing and able to serve their male customers.

Because of poverty many of the local girls are forced to drop out of school and start working in this nightlife scene. The law states that no girls under the age or 18 are allowed to work in these establishments but the truth of the matter is that many of the girls are as young as 16. Either they themselves fake their birth certificates or the places where they are working do it for them.

The following is a true story told to myself by a Manila bar girl;

Hi, I’m 18 and from the Philippines and this is my story. Due to poverty I had to drop out of school when I’m only 17 and I decided to go to join one of my girlfriend’s and work in one of the girly bars in Manila. This was the only way I would be able to make some money so that I could return to the province and continue with my studies again.

The whole bar scene and meeting all these other girls [of which so many of them were in the same situation as I was] and foreigner men was a shock to my system. Where I’m from, it’s just like a small town with not so many people and everyone seems to know each other there. Not only this.. dancing on stage for 8 hours every night was very tiring also.

There’s two different groups of girls dancing – the tall girls and the shorter girls. I was in the shorter girls group. Each group danced for 30 minutes, whereby then they would go rest so the other group of girls could dance for 30 minutes. This just keeps up the whole night.. nonstop until we go home (back to our boarding house) at 4am.

We’re paid 250 pesos per night for dancing.. but of that 250 pesos.. we have to deduct 150 pesos for our costume rental and for the services of the make-up girls. [Authors note; these makeup artists usually aren’t even girls! They were always ‘ladyboys’ doing the make-up for the girls. I guess they’re better at that then even real girls are].

So, this means that us dancing girls are earning only about 100 pesos per night if we didn’t get any drinks from customers. If we got drinks then we earn an extra 100 pesos per drink so that’s why we love to get plenty of drinks.

Mamasan was very nice to me.. even though I’m only 17 years of age that time, she managed to make a fake birth certificate for me so I was able to work there cause the actual legal minimum age is supposed to be 18. A couple of the girls working there even admitted to me that they were only 16 years of age! I was amazed at this and how young some of them were.

Mamasan also taught me many things.. like how to treat and make conversation to the male customers, how to drink alcohol without getting drunk, and so many more ‘tricks of the trade’. She also knew that I was a virgin so this made her even more nice and protective of me. She told me that the normal ‘bar fine’ for non-virgin girls was only

Of course, I really wish that I didn’t have to sell my ‘virginity’ for any amount but at this time I didn’t have any choice really. So.. I thought to myself, wow.. that’s a lot of money! If I can do that and get my 40,000 pesos then I won’t even have to work here anymore cause that’s already enough for me to go back to the province to continue my studies. I told mamasan that I do agree with that so she was happy also to hear this news.

Two months went by but there were no ‘takers’ of my virginity yet. Many men wanted to make love to me [and why not? I’m considered quite petite and beautiful also!] but when they learned I’m still a virgin and the price will be 42,000 pesos.. they lost interest quickly cause, ‘that’s very expensive!’, was their usual comments to me.

Then, one day this Japanese businessman, Yuji, came to our bar. He saw me, smiled, and invited me for a drink. He was nice and we got along well. When Yuji learned about me being a virgin and also about the 42,000 peso price – it didn’t phase him at all. He immediately agreed! I was happy.. but of course.. nervous also cause I’m about to lose my virginity to a complete stranger whom I’d just only met..

Yuji paid mamasan the 42,000 pesos. Then he brought me to his nearby hotel. He was gentle with me.. even kissing my virgin pussy first ‘to make it more wet and horny’, is what he told me. That was fantastic cause no one has ever kissed me down there before. I loved that. Then, Yuji got on top of me and slowly forced his in.. little by little it was going in and penetrating me. It kinda hurt for the first several strokes.. but then the pleasure was just as good as the pain so I was also enjoying it. In fact.. when he came inside me.. I also came again.

Wow.. Oh my god… I saw so much blood on his bed sheet afterwards and I was apologizing to him but he said, “It’s ok.. this is normal for a virgin doing it for the first time”. Later that night… we made love again.. and then once again when we woke up in the morning. Definitely, now, I’m no longer a virgin anymore.

That evening I went to the bar and mamasan gave me my money. I was so happy then. I didn’t even work that night.. although mamasan tried to convince me to stay. I was excited and went back to our dorm and packed my things. The next day I took the Rabbit bus back to the province and my whole family was so happy to see me again.

Unfortunately, the money didn’t last long cause I gave most of it to my parents so they could fix up our dilapidated house. I was soon broke again and didn’t even have enough to continue my studies for even a single semester.. let alone a whole year.

To make my story end now.. and it’s not really a happy ending either.. I’m back working in the bar and I hope I can earn enough money one of these days so I can return back to the province and continue with my studies cause the bar life is not a good life for any girl. Thank you for being so nice and listing to my story. [Maria, 18, Philippines]

*Author’s Note: $1.00 = 52.5 Pesos so 40,000 pesos is about USD$762.00 at today’s exchange rate.

Tony Wells is an American who’s first Asian eye-opening experience was in 1982 when he went there to work as a Commercial Oilfield Deep Sea Diver. He’s currently writing a book about his life’s story as the only Black American Commercial Diver in SEA and all other his wild and crazy experiences in Asia.

He has also written articles for airline in-flight magazines such as; Silver Kris, Wings of Gold, and Hemispheres as well as some local Singapore newspapers.