Child trafficking charges eyed against Swede

CAPITOL officials are considering filing child trafficking charges against a Swedish national who was arrested for going with a 9-year-old Masbate girl in a Cebu City port last week.

Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale met with officials of Masbate province and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday morning to build the province’s case against Conny Lagstrem, not Jonny as earlier reported.

She said the BI officials sent her request for a hold-departure order to their central office and were checking on Lagstrem’s background.  “I’m hoping that the order comes out this week,” she said.

Lagstrem managed to post P320,000 bail on a charge of child abuse.

He and the 9-year-old girl were waiting for a vessel headed to Masbate province when he was arrested.

Magpale also told reporters that the Provincial Women’s Commission (PWC) checked claims by Lagstrem’s fiancée that she is the girl’s aunt.

She said Masbate officials told her that the child’s mother is deceased and her father remarried.

If it was up to her, Magpale said she would rather turn over custody of the child to the mayor than to the Swede’s fiancée.

Later in a text message sent to Cebu Daily News, Magpale said they confirmed that the fiancée is not related to the child.  She said the girl’s real aunt is in Masbate. Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus