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Former president Benigno Aquino III reported that the Philippines has improved its human trafficking record as it moved up from Tier 2 to Tier 1 in the US 2016 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report of the US State Department. Tier 1 countries are those fully compliant with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The Philippines is the only Southeast Asian country under Tier 1. When Aquino assumed office in 2010, the Philippines was in the Tier 2 Watch List, already at risk of slipping to Tier 3. By 2011, the country improved and went up to Tier 2 and remained at that level until 2015. Meanwhile, the same report added 8 countries, including Uzbekistan and fledgling democracy Myanmar, to the blacklist of countries not doing enough to stop human trafficking.
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