3 women indicted for human trafficking

Three women were recently indicted for human trafficking after one of their alleged victims complained that they made her work as commercial sex worker in Singapore.

City prosecutor Nicolas Sellon approved the filing of the case in court against Sheila May Ponte, her mother Cardidad Ponte, and Roda Pulido for violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Person Act of 2003.

The prosecutors office recommended P200,000 bail for each of the accused but it did not implicate in the case a Singaporean citizen who was reportedly the boy friend and business partner of Sheila May for lack of evidence.

The victim, a resident of Oslob town, complained that sometime in March last year, the three recruited her to work in Singapore. She alleged that they assured her that they could find her an employer there and that they would facilitate the processing of her travel documents.

She alleged that Sheila May also promised to shoulder all the expenses in going to Singapore, prompting her to accept the offer. But her documents, which Sheila May allegedly gave her, showed that she was traveling as a tourist.

In Singapore, the victim said she and the other Filipina women recruited by the accused were made to work as guest relation officers of a club in one of the hotels.

She added that Sheila May, as "mama sang", allegedly acted as their pimp to wealthy customers so that they could earn extra money to pay back the expenses in taking them to that country.

Sheila May's alleged boy friend and business partner, Ho Kok Fei, reportedly acted as their manager. The prosecutor's office however, said that Fei could not be indicted of the offense because his participation in the recruitment was not established.

The complainant said she first met Sheila May in Singapore sometime in 2004, through a common friend, when she went there upon the invitation of her Singaporean fiancé.

Back here in Cebu sometime in March 2005, she was surprised to receive a long distance call from Sheila May asking her to meet a certain Brenda, which she later knew as Roda Pulido, at the Mactan Airport but she refused.

The next week, Shiela May called her up again for a meeting at the former's house on B. Rodriguez Street. It was in Shiela May's house that the offer for her to work in Singapore was made, said the complainant.

The alleged victim accused Shiela May of allegedly trafficking women to work as sex workers in Singapore since 2003, and most of the women were from Cebu and Manila. - Fred P. Languido