14 minors rescued from Mango Ave. nightspots suspected as prosti fronts
Six suspected female pimps were arrested after police rescued dozens of women, including at least 14 minors, in a raid conducted simultaneously in two bars in Cebu City on Saturday evening.
At least 43 women were taken out of the bars along Gen. Maxilom Ave. (also known as Mango Ave.) which police claim serve as fronts for prostitution.
Insp. Maria Theresa Macatangay, chief of the PNP Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, said 24 women were rescued from the Pussycat Bar and 19 women from Club Temptation. The rescued women were taken to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Macatangay said the bars were placed under surveillance for three to four weeks before the entrapment operation was carried out past 11 p.m. Saturday.
Policemen posing as customers went to the bars and negotiated with the bar managers to get three women for sex. The prostituted women were to be paid P3,000 each.
The arrests were carried out after the suspected pimps got hold of the marked money that served as payment for the women’s services.
Macatangay said that they are withholding the names of the suspects pending completion of the investigation.
Ligaya Dael, head of the DSWD’s Crisis Intervention Unit, said that of the 43 victims, 14 of them were believed to be minors. One woman who was earlier identified as a victim was turned over to the police for investigation yesterday morning after interviews revealed that she was also into pimping.
Dael said that ages of the women range from 18 to 27 years, but they are still verifying the victims’ real ages.
She said the adult victims were released from their custody after they refused to avail of the intervention services of the DSWD.
“We encouraged them and recommended to them our services but they refused to avail of it. However, we still encourage them and would accept them if they would show interest in the programs we are offering,” Dael added.
She said the rescued adults insisted that they were working as dancers and were not into prostitution, but some minors admitted they were forced to have sex with their customers.
“Dili sila mo-admit nga gi-hire sila for sex or i-out sila sa mga customers. They said they only works as dancers and would sit with customers if i-table sila,” Dael said.
The DSWD said most of the victims were of low educational attainment which most of them attribute as the reason for working as nightspot entertainers.
“Most of them have only graduated elementary. Ning-resort sila ani nga trabaho kay wala man sila’y gradong nakab-ot. Para nila, kutob ra sila kasambahay and it is not sufficient to address the needs of their family (They resorted to this kind of work because they did not have a proper education. They believe that their lack of education would only land them jobs as household help),” Dael said in a phone interview.
Emotional comfort
The suspected minors, including the six “purchased girls” are currently under the custody of the DSWD where they are to undergo a series of debriefings and counseling.
After the rescue, the victims were immediately given emotional support and were oriented why they were taken to the DSWD.
“We made them understand that they are victims and that they were not arrested and were put in prison here in DSWD,” Dael said.
According to some of the minor victims, most of them were forced into sex.
“Upon asking, nay mga nanghilak. They said they only applied as a dancer pero pugson sila nga i-out sa customer where they are used for sex (They cried when we asked them. They said they were forced to go out with a customer and have sex with them),” Dael explained.
The rescued minors will be debriefed to give them an opportunity to release their anxieties and feelings after they were subjected to abuse.
No CLOSURE order
Charges for human trafficking will be filed against the suspected pimps as soon as the victims’ statements are collected and finalized.
Insp. Macatangay said the criminal complaints would be filed by Tuesday.
Police said despite the raid, the bars could still operate as there was no closure order issued against them.
“We have no hold on that. We will just wait for the court’s decision whether to implement closure of the bars or not. /Joy Cherry Quito, Reporter
