No bail for 17-year-old “pimp”

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office has recommended no bail against a 17-year-old girl who allegedly recruited two girls, including a minor, for prostitution.

 Prosecutor III Noel Cellona indicted the 17-year-old, who reportedly acted with discernment, after she opted not to undergo preliminary investigation to answer the accusations filed against her.

 Cellona elevated the cases for violations of Section 6 of Republic Act (RA) 9208 otherwise known as Qualified Trafficking, RA 10175 in relation to RA 9775 otherwise known as the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 and Section 5 of RA 7610 or child abuse before the Regional Trial Court.

 All cases are non-bailable.

 Members of the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group of Region-7 alleged that sometime in September 2014, they received a request for assistance from their foreign law enforcement counterpart that an individual controlling a social media account in Cebu was engaged in child pornography in exchange of money from foreigners.

 Sometime in April 2015, another request for assistance was received by the law enforcement arms from another foreign counterpart that someone in Cebu was engaged in child pornography.

 “We continued validating the same information using an online decoy account in Facebook pretending to be a foreign national in the name of Adam Traveller,” the joint-affidavit read, adding they utilized a foreigner decoy and agreed to meet in one of the hotels in Cebu and agreed to pay P3,000 in exchange for sex.

 The accused was arrested on August 17, 2015 in an entrapment and rescue operation.

 PO1 Nestor Abasolo, Jr. of the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Office-7 said he assumed as an online undercover pretending to be a foreigner.

 He said he interacted online with the accused and during their conversations, the latter, via Facebook, sent pornographic photos of the girls.

 He added that the accused offered him the girls, including the minor, for sex. Thus, an entrapment was conducted, leading to the arrest of the minor. — (FREEMAN)