Woman gets life sentence for exploiting young girls

CEBU, Philippines - A woman who allegedly enticed young girls to pose naked before a web camera has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Regional Trial Court yesterday.

In a two-page decision, Regional Trial Court Branch 14 Judge Raphael Yrastorza sentenced Jedeka Puerto Ortega Martinez, alias “Jade” or “Mommy”, to life imprisonment after being found guilty of trafficking in persons under a special law that protects women and children against sexual exploitation.

Yrastorza has also ordered Martinez to pay a fine of P3 million on top of her life sentence.

Yrastorza said that the offense of Martinez is considered qualified trafficking of persons “when the trafficked person is a child and is deemed committed in large scale since it is committed against three or more persons individually or as a group.”

“The person trafficked on this case are five minors, thus the trafficking is considered qualified and is punishable with the penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of not less that P2 million but not more than P5 million.”

“It is clear from the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses that they were made to pose in front of the camera of the computer of the accused inside her house, that if not for the timely arrival of the police, the minors would have been subjected to more abuse.

PO3 Joselito Bacarisas took the witness stand and testified that sometime in May 28, 2006, they received a telephone call from a concerned citizen that there were children locked in the house of the accused in sitio Bayong, barangay Candulawan, Minglanilla town.

When they reached Martinez’s house, she was the one who opened the door and the children were there. When asked what they were doing, the children said they were asked to pose naked in front of the computer by the accused.

During the arraignment Martinez entered a not guilty plea.

The mothers of the five little girls, who are all cousins aged between eight and 14, told police that Martinez enticed the girls to pose naked in exchange for money.

The charge sheet said Martinez conducted these lewd photo sessions in her bedroom on May 23, 24, 26, 27 and 28 of 2006.

The girls said Martinez even directed her five-year-old daughter to show them how to pose in front of the camera.

Martinez, a jobless, just moved into the neighborhood less than a month earlier. – Jasmin R. Uy/BRP (THE FREEMAN)