No family visitors yet for rescued girls in Cordova raid

SOCIAL workers are kept busy assessing the immediate family members of the children who were rescued from a cybersex den in Cordova town last Tuesday.

Jaybee Binghay, spokesperson of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7), said they are trying to locate  relatives to whom the agency can turn over custody of the children.

The girls, aged 9, 12 and 17 were caught performing naked in  front of a web camera in Cordova.

Three women, including a mother of one of the girls, were arrested.

Binghay said the children are in stable condition and  cooperating with social workers.

However,  a week after the raid,   no family members have come to visit the girls  at the DSWD to ask about their situation.

Binghay said the municipal social worker is validating a report about the other family members in Cordova.

“We need to assess them, as the problem might also come from their home,” Binghay told Cebu Daily News in an interview.

She said they are looking for the fathers of the three girls.

The male parents remain unidentified.

Binghay said they can’t return the children to their parents  who have  yet to undergo assessment.

“We have to know where he is when the incident happened. And why his children’s situation reached that point,” she said.

She said the social worker would also interview  neighbors.

Any relative who would want to look after the children will have to be evaluated, Binghay said.

For now, the children will have to miss school and  be educated through the Alternative Learning System of the government while being housed in the DSWD for  stress debriefing.

Five siblings who  earlier rescued from another Cordova cybersex den operated by their parents on June 1 have already started attending school.

Bingay said a nongovernment organization accredited by the DSWD is looking after the children and providing for their  needs. /Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya