Law enforcement agencies in the Philippines had vowed to combat transnational child sexual exploitation following the arrest of a Filipino man tagged as one of Europe’s most wanted child abuse offenders.
The National Bureau of Investigation Anti-Human Trafficking Division (NBI-HTD) chief Janet Fransciso said they were waiting to target other child sexual exploitation offenders through cross-border collaboration between foreign law enforcement groups.
The NBI-HTD had partnered with the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Center, the Philippine National Police Women and Children Protection Center (WCPC), the Australian Federal Police and the United Kingdom National Crime Agency in arresting 32-year-old Nelson Torayno in Cebu City in April for filming Filipino children being sexually abused by an adult.
8 children rescued
The Europol said Torayno had been “producing horrendous child exploitation material and posting that in dark web chat rooms where it was circulated amongst pedophile rings.”
Francisco said eight children from Cebu province and Iligan City had been rescued from Torayno’s criminal activities as of Thursday and had been returned to their families.
Five children from Cebu City, age 3 to 11, had been given trauma-informed interventions, Francisco said.
Brig. Gen. William Macavinta, chief of the PNP-WCPC, said they would continue to pursue child sexual offenders “regardless of the nationality [or location] of the perpetrators.”
Torayno will face charges in violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003. —WITH A REPORT FROM AP