INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines — Twenty-one people, including three toddlers, were rescued by authorities from being trafficked into Sabah via Tawi-Tawi province, across the country’s porous border with Malaysia.
They were rescued on three separate occasions, from Feb. 9 to Feb. 12, in Bongao town as they arrived on boats from Zamboanga City, military reports said.
According to Brig. Gen. Romeo Racadio, commander of the Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi, those rescued on Feb. 9 and Feb. 10 told authorities that from Bongao, they were supposed to be ferried to Sabah’s Semporna town and would be accompanied by guides known to them only as “Gina” and “Marvin.”
They were promised jobs either in an oil palm plantation in Semporna, or in a poultry farm in Papar, another town in Sabah.
The recruiters, they said, provided them with names of the supposed owners of the enterprises that would employ them as a way to entice them to cross the border, Racadio said.
The rescue was done by personnel of the Philippine Marine Corps, Tawi-Tawi police, and Bongao’s Municipal Inter-agency Committee Against Trafficking (Miacat).
Under DSWD care
Those rescued were later turned over to the municipal social welfare and development office in Bongao and eventually transported back to Zamboanga City where they were placed under the care of counselors of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
On Sunday, six more persons were rescued, also in Bongao, through a joint operation of the Philippine Navy, Marines, police, Philippine Coast Guard, and Miacat personnel.
Four of them came from Zamboanga Sibugay province, one from Basilan and another from Maguindanao, said Rear Adm. Donn Anthony Miraflor, commander of the Naval Forces Western Mindanao. The youngest among this group was 18 while the oldest was 40.
Miraflor said the three men and three women were recruited by a woman who introduced herself only as “Rose,” and who promised them jobs as farm laborers in Sabah.