Traffickers trapped through credit card use

BY using someone else’s credit cards, two women face jail time on charges of qualified trafficking, a non-bailable offense.

Princess Irish Bacalla and Rheafe Saplad were arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) and the airport police minutes before they boarded a plane with two of their victims last March 20.

The testimonies of one woman and a minor who Bacalla and Saplad allegedly recruited to work as variety dancers and prostitutes in Bacoor, Cavite will be used against the suspects, Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas said.

Rabillas heads the Task Force for Anti-Trafficking at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA).

“Traffickers are innovative in their modus operandi on how their victims leave the country unnoticed by the immigration office,” she said.

The attempt to transport the victims to Cavite was discovered by authorities when a certain Delfin Cuevas received a notice from Citibank for the purchase of Tiger Airways tickets in the total amount of P8,254.72.

Cuevas was surprised because he didn’t purchase plane tickets with his credit cards.

He decided to block his credit card and obtained the names of the four passengers to whom the tickets were issued.

Cuevas then sought NBI assistance and the agency together with the airport police intercepted the four passengers who used Cuevas’ card at the MCIA at 9:30 pm last March 20.

They were turned over to the members of the Internal Airport Investigation Division of the NBI detailed at the MCIA.

In a sworn statement, one of the victims said she was invited by Bacalla to work as a “variety dancer” in Bacoor, Cavite for P500 per night.

She said she was also instructed by Bacalla to bring other lady companions for them to work in a club in Cavite.

Bacalla told her that they can earn more if they would agree to a VIP arrangment with the customer and “to use condom for their own protection,” Rabillas said.

She said she was assured of board and lodging as well as plane tickets in going to Cavite via Manila.

Her companion said she agreed to the offer to earn more for her family.

Bacalla and the two victims later met with Saplad who brought the plane tickets for their supposed flight to Manila last March 20.

Bacalla and Saplad, who requested for a preliminary investigation before the prosecutors’ office, denied the accusations against them.

Lapu-Lapu Asst. Prosecutor Dinah Jane Portugal ordered a separate complaint for preliminary investigation be conducted against Bulahan, the person who purportedly instructed the two accused to hire the victims, and a certain “Ryan.”

Bacalla and Saplad will face trial for qualified trafficking before the Regional Trial Court Branch 53 in Lapu-Lapu City.

Under Republic Act 10364, identities and circumstances of human trafficking offenders are no longer held confidential.

The law amended Republic Act 9208 that previously shielded both victims and suspected human traffickers.

The victims, however, remain not to be identified in media reports. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol