Cops rescue 100 victims of trafficking in Zamboanga City

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Police authorities on Friday rescued more than 100 suspected victims of human trafficking, who were crammed into a budget hotel here and arrested their recruiter.

Chief Supt. Mario Yanga, deputy chief for administration of the Western Mindanao Command, said about half of the rescued victims, who were all from Basilan, were minors.

Yanga said police authorities conducted a raid on the hotel after receiving information that a man identified as Khaiser Salih Dipapora had been recruiting workers from Basilan.

The said recruiter, he said, had no license.

Chief Insp. Gemma Luna, head of the city police women and children’s desk, said the minors, whose ages she did not specify, were promised scholarships, allegedly to be given by Commissioner Earl Saavedra of the National Youth Commission.

The adult victims on the other hand, she said, were promised jobs under a supposed program of Sen. Vicente Sotto III.

“Both officials denied knowledge of the things the recruiter had promised the victims,” Luna said.

Luna said the minor victims had been turned over to the City Social Welfare Development Office for processing.

Charges were now being readied against Dipapora, who was locked up at the city police office, she said.

“We’ll make sure this suspect will no longer be free. Many would-be victims were interested to file charges against him,” she said. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao