Pinay, American in trafficking fall

CEBU, Philippines - A woman and her American live-in partner were arrested for alleged human trafficking Wednesday night in Barangay San Antonio, Cebu City.

Operatives of the Regional Anti-Trafficking Task Force (RATF) and social workers arrested the couple and rescued the woman’s two daughters, aged 15 and four.

PO3 Etelberto Timagus told The FREEMAN that they arrested the woman, 35, and the foreigner, 47, following complaint of the children’s grandmother and the woman’s third daughter, Rica (real name withheld considering the nature of the case.)

Timagus said the incident started Wednesday morning when the couple went to a public school in Barangay San Nicolas where Rica, 14, is a Grade Six student.

“The parent went to school to fetch her daughter. But instead of going with her, the child hid in the comfort room,” he said.

Rica’s teacher, who was surprised of her actuations, faced the couple and prevented them from taking her.

“Nag-start og pangisog ang Amerkano kay gi-deny man sa teacher kung asa ang bata. Nanghawa ang duha but mibahad pa sa teacher na ‘watch out’ (The American started to get angry as the teacher denied them. The couple left after threatening the teacher to watch out),” Timagus said.

Barangay tanods, whom the teacher and the principal sought for help, arrived but the couple has already left.

When the teachers asked Rica what was going on, she narrated that her mother wanted to sell her and that her two siblings had already been sold. She said the foreigner would also beat her.

This ordeal prompted Rica to leave their house and stay with her grandmother.

Acting on a report from Barangay San Nicolas, police and social workers arrived before lunch yesterday and rescued Rica. Her grandmother also came to her rescue.

Around 9:30 pm, Rica and her grandmother accompanied the police and social workers to Pelaez Street where the couple usually stays.

The couple was seen standing at the roadside as if waiting for someone, Timagus said.

With the supervision of RATF head, Senior Insp. Maria Theresa Macatangay, Timagus said they then arrested the couple.

The police officer said the two resisted, but were subdued. At least 11 police officers and social workers carried out the operation.

Rica’s sisters, aged 15 and four, who were also in the area, were rescued.

“The 15-year-old was in the back with four foreigners then the four-year-old was in the road,” Timagus said.

Timagus said the girls, including the grandmother, are now in the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development-7.

While Rica is cooperative, Timagus said that the 15-year-old sister, the eldest sibling, rarely talked.

“The 15-year-old seems to have accepted her mother’s pimping of her. Her sympathy was with her mother,” the police officer said.

Rica, Timagus said, disclosed that her mother and the foreigner sold two of her siblings, one of them a boy, about three years ago. The kids are now in Leyte.

Timagus said they are still studying the charges to file against the suspects, but their violations will fall under Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003. He said they will file the charges on Monday. The suspects are now detained at the detention cell of the Police Regional Office-7.

The mother, in an interview, denied selling her children, saying she cannot do such thing.

“I was forced to work as prostitute because of my children and there is no way I would sell them,” she said crying. The foreigner, her live-in-partner for 10 years, declined to give his comment.

She said that the girls’ grandmother, who is her mother, only misinterpreted their appearance at the school when they only wanted to visit Rica.

Andrey Sawchenko, spokesperson of the International Justice Mission, said they are happy that the children were rescued.

Two pimps nabbed in Mandaue

Meanwhile, two suspected pimps were arrested by the police during an entrapment operation Wednesday evening in Barangay Alang-alang, Mandaue City.

The two, both 22 years old and residents of Barangay Tipolo and Barangay Opao respectively, were arrested after a police decoy negotiated that he wanted them to look for six women for him.

Basak Police Station chief P/Sr. Insp Wilson Abot said the two told the police decoy that each woman would cost P1,000.

During the transaction, which took place at a gasoline station, the police decoy handed the P6,000 to them in exchange of the six women.

The two then left the women to him as they immediately flagged down a taxi. 

Police then chased the taxi and placed the suspects under arrest. — with a report from Flor Z. Perolina/LPM