MANILA, Philippines ? Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation Tuesday raided an Internet cafe in Las Piñas City believed to be operating as a cybersex den.

Roland Argabioso, head of the NBI Field Operations Division that conducted the raid, identified the cafe as Seonix International Trading Corp., located in the Reyes Building on Alabang-Zapote Road.

?Apparently, (being an Internet cafe) was only used as a disguise for its real scheme of providing obscene and immoral pornographic materials for exhibition to foreign and local clients,? he said.

The owner of the cafe, a Korean named Seo Ki Yeoul, was arrested during the operation. Nineteen workers were also taken into custody.

The NBI official said the firm employed young males who had posed as women. They allegedly chatted online with clients, both locals and foreigners, and whenever the customers asked them to pose in the nude, the workers would reportedly show pre-recorded video footage of women taking off their clothes.

?(The chatters) were posing as women who entertain paying male clients,? Argabioso said. ?The clients would pay in dollars for every nude pose, not knowing they were merely viewing pre-recorded video clips.?

He added that charges of violating Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code in relation to Republic Act 8792 (The Electronic Commerce Act) would be filed against Seo.

Similar charges would be filed against the firm?s incorporators identified as Jang Moon Young, Noralyn Rivera, Rowena Orejola, Janita Lacap and two others identified only as Ruel Mar and Rona.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Las Piñas Judge Erlinda Nicolas-Alvaro, the NBI seized various documents and 36 computers from the Internet cafe.

The bureau said the raid, which was conducted following surveillance operations, was prompted by information that the firm was engaged in cyber sex and pornography.