Female “illegal recruiter” of five Cebuanas arrested in Kanlaon City

A 22-year-old female engineering student was arrested Wednesday dawn in Kanlaon City, Negros Oriental for a case of illegal recruitment, which allegedly involved also her younger sister working in Malaysia.

Two policewomen of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch of the Cebu City Police went to Kanlaon to serve the arrest warrant to Sarah Jane Estrada, who was a student in one of the universities in Cebu City.

Sarah Jane and her 20-year-old sister Roselyn Estrada were indicted of the crime of trafficking in person, in which they allegedly recruited five Cebuanas to work as “singers” in Malaysia but only to end up as prostitutes in pubhouses there.

Roselyn, who has been working in Malaysia and was believed to have been the one facilitating the recruitment, was not in the Estrada house at barangay Malaiba in Kanlaon City when the Cebu City authorities arrived.

Roselyn is still at large but has been believed to be in hiding at Kanlaon City. She and Sarah Jean were ordered to post P200,000 bail each for their temporary liberty.

The Cebu policewomen, PO2 Jerybel Lerio and PO1 Shirley Montalban, were assisted by Kanlaon policemen led by their station chief, Chief Insp. Samuel Higalgo, in arresting Sarah Jane who was found hiding inside a huge pan, or “kawa,” in a poorly lighted room of the house.

Cebu City Police director, Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, earlier told reporters that it was Sarah Jane who recruited the five Cebuanas who she introduced later to Roselyn, who had just came home from Malaysia on November last year.

Sarah Jane denied the allegations contending that did not even know the real work of her sister in Malaysia aside from the latter’s claim that she has been working as a singer there and earning big money as such.

The five Cebuanas were neighbors and friends of the Estradas when Sarah Jane was residing at Susco, Banawa in barangay Guadalupe (Cebu City) during her studies in a university in the city.

They accused the two sisters of luring them with job as singers in Malaysia, with as much as P20,000 weekly income. They however ended up as prostitutes in pubhouses in Miri instead and were able to escape with the help of some Filipinos.

One of the victims, a 21-year old high school graduate and a single mother, narrated that Sarah Jane recruited her on October 3 last year then introduced her to Roselyn, who in turn gave her and the other “recruits” money for processing of travel and employment documents.

After a period of “dance and singing training” and with passports and pocket money provided them, she said that Michelle, reportedly a friend of Roselyn, accompanied and assisted them at the Immigration Office in the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

The “victims” left Cebu for Kota Kinabalu via Malaysian Airlines on November 26 last year. From Kota Kinabalu they took another plane for Miri where they were met by Aji who drove them to Bintulu and brought them to a house where other female “singers” stayed.

They later learned that the P5,000 pocket money given them were partial salary, which was given by a Filipina named Irene, allegedly a girlfriend of their Malaysian big boss, Yek Nai Ming.

Yek and another Filipina girlfriend, Lisa, met them but the two took their passports, cellphones, and the rest of their pocket money, while warning them not to use phones and talk to the other women there.

On their first night on the job, they said that they were transported to the La Bamba and Fire pubhouses where they served as entertainers for customers on a table and drink with the latter.

The victim, in her affidavit, said that some drunken customers sexually abused them and touched their private parts, among other humiliating acts. She said they could not fight back because Yek monitored their movements via security cameras.

They later learned they have no monthly salaries and could only earn through commissions on every drinks they consumed with their customers.

On December 7, 2006, they duped their driver and escaped to the Bintulu Immigration Office but there they were only humiliated and told to report their situation to the police. They did but still they got the same cold treatment.

The policemen instead took them back to the immigration office where Yek and his Filipina girlfriend were waiting for them. The couple berated them for escaping and ordered them to return to work.

They refused, and when they got the chance slipped past immigration officers and, with the help of some Filipinos, reached the Philippine Embassy. They were finally sent back home to Cebu. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE