Two charged for recruiting minors for sex

CEBU, Philippines - Two women who reportedly recruited young girls, one a minor, for alleged prostitution in a lodging house along Osmeña Boulevard were charged with illegal recruitment before the Regional Trial Court on Tuesday.

Police arrested Marlyn Buhisan and Marichu Tawi after rescuing four young women, one of them a minor, in New Perlito’s Lodge along Osmeña Boulevard.

The suspects allegedly made the three women and the minor work as commercial sex workers.

After the Regional Special Investigations Unit received information regarding the illegal activities reportedly going on at New Perlito’s Lodge involving trafficked women and children, the authorities pursued an operation to rescue the victims on April 28, this year.

PO3 Jose Erwin Dumaguit led the team which proceeded to the area.

In the operation, they observed that there were pimps offering not only young women, but also minors, to customers at the entrance and exit doors of the said lodge.

Posed as customers, the policemen were approached by Buhisan and Tawi who offered them young girls worth P300 each for sex inside the New Perlito’s Lodge or P500 if the girls would be taken somewhere else. The rescued victims, including the minor, are now in the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Buhisan and Tawi were arrested and were not allowed to post bail for the said offense.

As for Antonio and Christina Planteras, the couple who owns the said lodge, a bail of P150,000 each has been recommended. — Jasmin R. Uy/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)