Court sentences pimp to life in prison

MANILA, Philippines - A Quezon City court has convicted and sentenced a pimp to life in prison for peddling eight women for sex services, the government announced Tuesday.

The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) said that the Quezon City Regional Trial Court sentenced Jerome Zamora to life after being found guilty of violating the Anti-Human Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

The pimp was also ordered by the court to pay a fine of P2 million.

Zamora was arrested by the police in 2012 during an entrapment operation in Novaliches, Quezon City. The case was filed the same year.

During the operation, the authorities rescued the eight women, two of them aged 14 and 17 years old.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, head of IACAT, said that they have already monitored five successful human trafficking cases, where the accused were convicted by the court.