6 minors rescued from sex den in Sampaloc

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) anti-crime task force rescued six girls, all minors, and arrested two alleged maintainers of a suspected prostitution den in Sampaloc, Manila before dawn yesterday.

Chief Inspector Nelson Yabut, DILG-Special Task Force director, said the raid was conducted on a house at Castañas street in Sampaloc Manila at around 12:30 a.m.

Police rescued six girls, with ages ranging from 13 to 17 years old. Investigation revealed the girls were recruited from various provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao and were gypped into white slavery.

Arrested were Roger Pastora, 36, and Anjo Bermeo, the alleged maintainer and pimp of the den, respectively. The two will be charged with violation of the Republic Act 7610, also known as the Anti-Child Abuse Law, DILG sources said.

The raid was conducted with the help Christian Kerremas, a founder of Save Our Soul (SOS), a Holland-based child care foundation that helps government officials in the campaign against prostitution and child abuse in the Philippines.

Kerremas told Yabut that he was able to confirm the illegal activities of Pastora and Bermeo when the two suspects "gave" him a sex-for-hire 16-year-old girl.

Yabut said a STF agent posed as a customer and managed to get two girls after paying P3,000. The agent brought the girls to a motel in Sta. Mesa, Manila where the two confessed of being prostitutes. – Cecille Suerte Felipe