Sun Star Cebu
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Boy, 19, caught 'selling' girls
A 19-YEAR-OLD boy, believed to be a pimp, is facing trafficking charges for allegedly trying to sell three young girls to foreigners for ***.
Two of the girls were aged 15 and 16 while the third was 26 years old.
Mark (real name withheld) was charged last Friday with qualified trafficking in persons, a crime that violates Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.
Mark was arrested in a hotel at past 9:30 p.m. Tuesday during an entrapment by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch (CIIB).
Three foreign decoys posed as customers, using marked bills to pay Mark a total of P20,000 for the three girls. The transaction was conducted in a hotel room in Cebu City.
The CIIB officers and a representative from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) entered the room shortly after Mark arrived with the girls and accepted the money from the foreigners.
The tip on Mark came from the International Justice Mission (IJM), a human rights organization that works on cases involving women and children.
In the complaint filed against Mark, two of the victims, “Andrea” and “Nina” (real names withheld because they are minors), issued affidavits against him. (Mark’s real name is also being withheld because the law on trafficking forbids the identification of suspects from the investigation until the end of the trial.)
Dire straits
According to her affidavit, 16-year-old Andrea is the daughter of a fisherman in Daanbantayan, Cebu. Her mother sells the fish that her father catches.
She has five older and four younger siblings.
Andrea said she came to Cebu with her brother in January this year to continue her studies. She first met Mark through Nina.
Nina, 15, is the fourth among eight children. According to her affidavit, her mother is sickly and her father recently lost his job because of an accident.
Nina said that this, along with debts to pay and siblings to take care of, is the reason she first accepted Mark’s proposal to sell her body for *** when the two met in July this year.
Nina alleged that after her first customer, she repeatedly allowed Mark to set her up with clients, saying she already felt “dirty and useless” anyway.
Both Andrea and Nina claimed that last Tuesday night, Mark let them a ride a taxi with him and another girl. Mark reportedly kept communicating over the phone with a client, speaking in English.
Mark allegedly brought them to a hotel in Cebu City, where a foreigner led them to a room.
Red-handed
Three foreigners gave Mark P20,000. He had just received and counted the money when CIIB operatives and a DSWD representative entered the room.
As Mark failed to submit his counter-affidavit, prosecutor Ma. Luisa Ratilla recommended the filing of a criminal charge against him.
A team from the CIIB and DSWD 7 started working on the case after receiving information from the IJM about the alleged activity.
CIIB Chief George Ylanan created a team composed of PO3 Cesar Pandong, PO3 Bezaleel Olmedo Jr., PO3 Helario Coderos and PO2 Ruben Quita to conduct the operation.
The girls who were rescued, aged 15, 16, and 26, all residents of Consolacion, Cebu, were taken into the custody of the DSWD
Boy, 19, caught 'selling' girls
Originally Posted by darkdruid
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