House panel seeks PNP, NBI probe

ILOILO CITY, Philippines  -- The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability yesterday urged the PNP and the NBI to look into the allegations of a New Zealand woman that she was gang-raped and turned into a sex slave by a group in Iloilo, posing online as organizers of a martial arts training camp.

In a press release sent to The FREEMAN, Iloilo Rep. Jerry Treñas, the committee chair, said the report published in the New Zealand Herald and in online news carriers such as Yahoo was very disturbing because it even mentioned Iloilo province as the place where the alleged sexual assault took place.

"I'm appealing to PNP Chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome and NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula to personally supervise this investigation because this is a very serious accusation especially at a time when the entire country is still reeling from the bad PR that came in the aftermath of the bungled Quirino grandstand hostage rescue incident," Treñas said.

According to a report published over New Zealand Herald, Mary Elizabeth Jones, 39, claimed she was forced into prostitution after being duped by a Facebook invitation to join a martial arts school.

Being a martial arts enthusiast, Jones answered the group's invitation for her to undergo training in the Philippines in October last year. "They were meant to be world class and I thought this was a chance for me to learn from the best," Jones was quoted as saying.

She alleged that upon her arrival at the Iloilo City airport, she was robbed of her belongings and "thrown into a bug-infested room after which she was picked up by a man who claimed he was the group's ( martial arts training organizer) leader.

The NZ Herald also quoted Jones, as saying that she was "made to have sex with up to nine men a day, with each reportedly paying 5000 pesos (NZ$140)."

"I felt utterly disgusted, and I was treated like a piece of meat," Jones reportedly told Herald. "It was meant to be a trip of a lifetime but it has destroyed my whole life instead."

Jones claimed that she was also "punished with beatings when she attempted to escape" and " was dumped on the streets of Manila after torment and starvation left her too weak to stand."

"I hate myself immensely and feel so dirty. I wish I could have just died in the Philippines rather than go on living like this," Jones said in the report.

The report said that five months after her ordeal, Jones "is recovering in a boarding house in Mangere and wants to warn others."

Treñas, in the press release, said that either the PNP or the NBI should send a team to get a full account from Jones, as he noted that her story has so many gaps and needs clarification.

"For one, I could hardly believe that her abductors managed to transport her from Iloilo to Manila without inviting the attention of our security forces. Nonetheless, her story is very serious and this can again have a tremendous impact in our effort to redeem ourselves after the hostage fiasco at the Quirino grandstand. These kinds of stories can really scare away potential tourists," Treñas said.

He said that if the story is verified, the PNP and the NBI should do everything to ensure that the perpetrators are put behind bars.

"Although the incident allegedly took place last year, I think that there's a great chance that we can still track down the perpetrators if Jones' story is true especially because it appears there was an exchange of electronic information between the victims and the suspects," Treñas added. (FREEMAN)