Boarding houses warned vs cybercrimes

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog told boarding house owners to be vigilant in choosing their boarders to prevent their facilities being converted into cybersex dens and charged with cyber crimes.

Mabilog's statement came after policemen raided a cybersex den at Barangay Sinikway in La Paz district in this city last week, resulting in the arrest of four women, including a 16-year-old college student.

Although activities of boarders inside their rented rooms are already too personal, it is still the responsibility of the landlady or landlord to monitor any extra activities of their boarders especially when these are suspicious, said the mayor.

"I asked the help of everybody especially the boarding house owners and barangay officials to cooperate and report to the police any suspicious activities inside the boarding houses," he said.

Mabilog said he already ordered the city's Boarding House Commission to strictly monitor all boarding houses operating in the city. There are around 1, 208 boarding houses here but only 612 boarding houses were able to renew their business permits, as of second quarter of this year.

In Friday last week, the Regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit filed charges against three women and boarding house owner Helen Delotavo for violation of the Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

Delotavo denied her involvement of the crime, saying that the arrested suspects rented her house more than a month ago and she had no idea of their illegal activity. She was however released on bail. —  (FREEMAN)