NBI raids Makati brothel

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have recently apprehended in an entrapment operation four men for allegedly running a brothel in Makati City.

Twenty women and two teenage girls were rescued from the prostitution den.

Assistant Regional Director Oscar Embido, of the NBI-Anti-Organized Crime Division, said the raid followed a tip from human rights group International Justice Mission (IJM), through its executive director attorney Patty Sison-Arroyo.

The four suspects — alleged den overall manager Rodolfo Francisco, Ricky Francisco, Ricardo Francisco and Francisco Rodriguez — face charges of violating the anti-human trafficking and child abuse laws. They face possible life imprisonment if convicted.

If the Department of Justice upholds the charges, the four will not be allowed to post bail.

According to an initial investigation conducted by the NBI-AOCD, the IJM on Nov. 29 complained to the NBI that minors were being kept against their will and allegedly trafficked for prostitution.

They applied for a search warrant from Judge Eugene Paras, of Branch 58 of the Makati City Regional Trial Court, after their surveillance operation confirmed the brothel’s existence.

At around 10:30 p.m. of Dec. 18, one of the NBI agents posed as a customer and negotiated with one of the suspects. After closing the deal and paying with marked money to him, the agent gave a pre-arranged signal for the other members of the raiding team to swoop in.

Agents found records and notebooks detailing the brothel’s operations. The NBI said the den looked like an ordinary apartment from the outside.

All of the women in the brothel were from provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao, mostly from Davao, Samar, and Leyte. Two teenage girls rescued from the brothel — aged 15 and 17 — are now in the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The victims told the NBI that the suspects reportedly deceived them into working as prostitutes, promising them jobs as waitresses in Metro Manila.

The NBI is now conducting a more thorough investigation to find out if the brothel had protectors. There are reports that the establishment has been operating for the past 10 years because some of its protectors are law enforcement officers and politicians.

Most of its clients were Japanese who paid 10,000 yen for the women’s services. The women were only paid P900 for every customer.