MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has ordered an intensified campaign against human trafficking as she directed the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) headed by Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar to review pending cases before the council and work for their immediate resolution.
De Lima’s order came on the heels of a meeting with President Aquino, who expressed concern over large-scale human trafficking cases in the country.
The President also said that the battle against trafficking in persons (child and women trafficking, labor trafficking, and organ trafficking) is one of the priority concerns of the administration.
The meeting was also attended by Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo.
Undersecretary Salazar, for his part, said now that the council’s mandate has been made very clear he would immediately start an intensified and all-out campaign to put to jail those engaged in human smuggling.
He also said the IACAT composition is revved up with the appointment of seasoned prosecutors. According to him, the appointment of Assistant City Prosecutor Raymond Jonathan Lledo, president of the Prosecutors’ League of the Philippines, as National Task Force chairman; ACP Ferdinand Baylon as chief of operations of the Task Force; and former Makati police homicide investigator ACP Ramoncito Ocampo, head of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Task Force, makes the team more structurally viable and organized for the effective prosecution and conviction of offenders.
Among the controversial cases brought to the attention of IACAT was the case of businessman Mariano Tanenglian where three household helpers have filed a complaint against the family of Tanenglian for illegal detention, physical abuse and inhumane treatment.
De Lima, then chair of the Commission on Human Rights, ordered a composite team of the Philippine National Police, CHR and DSWD to rescue Tanenglian’s maids.
Lawyer Al Parreño, counsel of the maids, in a letter, asked the DOJ and the IACAT for support and investigation in the Anti-Trafficking cases filed against the rich businessman.