The United States Department of Justice will assist the Provincial Women’s Commission in prosecuting the Cordova cyber pornography case, where a father and mother were arrested for exploiting their young children.
“We’ll be working together with the prosecutor’s office to provide the witnesses whatever evidence they are asking,” said US Justice Attache Robert Courtney after meeting with Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale yesterday.
The legal aid will be given under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the US and Philippine governments, which provides for the sharing of information and evidence in criminal investigation and prosecution.
Courtney will be the contact person for evidence needed by the PWC.
The June 1 raid in Cordova by the National Bureau of Investigation was preceded by surveillance aided by the US Department of Homeland Security in tracking down porn sites where live videos of the children were used.
“This is a first of its kind,” said Magpale, referring to the US-Cebu collaboration under the treaty.
The PWC is preparing affidavits of witnesses and keeping an eye on the six children who were placed in the care of social welfare workers.
The pre-trial conference of the case is set today in Lapu-Lapu City.
In yesterday’s Provincial Board (PB) session, Regional Director Jesus Laureno of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and lawyer Alan Felix Macaraya were invited to explain rules of the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009, specifically the installation of filtering software for computers.
Macaraya said blocking porn sites remains a problem since Internet Service Providers can’t judge whether or not a website is pornographic.
Macaraya said the NTC can’t regulate the contents of a website and that it was the task of the Optical Media Board to give a clear definition of “pornography.”
An ordinance approved in 2006 mandates Internet cafes in Cebu province to install filtering software to block pornographic sites. /Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus