Pinoy pedophilia victims to get $41,475 — US court

LOS ANGELES — Two convicted pedophiles were ordered to pay a combined amount of $41,475 in restitution to their victims in the Philippines, marking the first award of its kind in a child sex tourism case.

US District Judge Gary Klausner on Tuesday ordered Edilberto Datan, 61, of San Diego to pay $16,475 to eight teenager boys identified through a joint investigation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Philippine police, officials said.

The ruling came a day after another San Diego man who made a sex tape with a teenage girl while visiting the Philippines in 2002 was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay $25,000 to "benefit Filipino victims of child exploitation," under a plea agreement in San Diego federal court.

The case of Datan, a naturalized citizen of Filipino descent, was prosecuted under the PROTECT Act in 2003, which boosted penalties for such crimes and made it easier for federal prosecutors to bring charges in sex tourism cases.

"In the 10 years prior to the PROTECT act, there were only two cases prosecuted," said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. "Since then, we’ve had 14 child sex tourism cases involving individuals, a number of them in Southern California."

Datan was arrested November 2004 at Los Angeles International Airport after returning from a trip to the Philippines. A search of his luggage turned up hundreds of sexually explicit images of underage boys.

He pleaded guilty in March to engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors and producing child pornography outside the US. He was sentenced in June to 17 years in federal prison and lifetime supervision.

Under an agreement with the US Attorney’s Office and ICE, the international aid group World Vision will use the money Datan pays to provide two years of medical, psychological and occupational therapy for the teens, who were 14 and 15 when the crimes occurred.

On Monday, a San Diego judge ordered Bernard Lawrence Russell, 38, to stay away from children, give up his passport and have his telephone and computer use monitored.

Russell admitted in April that he traveled to the Philippines in 2002 with the intent to have sex with a child.

According to court documents, two girls, ages 13 and 14, said Russell paid them $30 and $20, respectively, to have sex.

Authorities also seized 32 images of child pornography during a search of Russell’s home in 2003.

"Every day children are sexually exploited by men from the United States in places like the Philippines, Cambodia and Costa Rica," said Joseph Mettimano, director of World Vision’s child sex tourism prevention project.

"While restitution cannot undo the damage that has been done. It will provide for much-needed counseling and other services for some of the young boys assaulted." — AP, AFP