NBI 7 : She’s Cordova’s Queen of Cyberporn

NBI-7 Regional Director Antonio Pagatpat said they consider the arrested mother the “queen of cyberpornography” in Cordova town.

“Based on reports we got, there are several minors in their place who fell victim to her. The NBI needs to enforce the law against human trafficking which has been the top concern of the Department of Justice. We will not allow our minors to be exploited,” Pagatpat told reporters.

Pagatpat said U.S. law enforcement agencies were able to trace the woman as the source of photos and videos of minors circulating in the US.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement sought the assistance of the NBI in making the arrest.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Cebu City Regional Trial Court Judge Soliver Peras, the NBI raided the house of the suspects about 1 a.m. of May 26.

Agents waited for the husband to arrive home and knock on the gate. When the wife opened, the gate, they  arrested the couple.

They confiscated a flat screen computer, a net book, web camera, CPU, and cellphones.

Pagatpat said cyberpornography continues to be rampant in Cordova following a couple of operations that led to the arrests of two couple in the past three years.

“We have conducted raids in Cordova and our agent are not done yet. They are investigating other cybersex dens in that town,” Pagatpat said.

Pagatpat expressed shock that parents would sexually exploit their children.

“This incident disproves the belief that ‘no mother intentionally exposes her children to harm.” When I saw the pictures of the victims, they were really asked to perform sexual acts,” he said.

Pagatpat said the couple’s daughter speaks English very well, perhaps because of her exposure to foreign clients on the Internet.

The mother, who worked before in a company of the  Mactan Export Processing Zone, said she started the cyberporn business in 2010, after observing operations of Internet cafes and noticing her neighbors engaged in the same activity.

“Ang among silingnan naa man puy cybersex operations. Daghan man na sa Cordova. (Our neighbors are also engaged to cybersex operations. The illegal activity is widespread in Cordova),” she said.

She said the American she transacted with on the Internet last Sunday promised to pay for school expenses of her daughter.

The mother didn’t know he was actually an NBI decoy.

She had asked for P3,200 to buy school supplies and pay for enrollment fees.

Children were at home at the time although they were not engaged in cyberporn when law enforcers arrived.

The NBI took into custody the 13-year-old daughter, aside from a niece of the father and her boyfriend.

The previous 2011 raid in barangay Ibabao didn’t curb their activty.

After the NBI’s well pubicized arrest of a married couple in the same sitio in Jun 1, 2011, she said they temporarily slowed down… but didn’t stop.

“Naghinay-hinay naman kog bag-o pero natintal lang gyud ko niadtong Domingo. (I’m trying to reform my life little by little but I was tempted to resume cybersex operations last Sunday),” she said.

Now that she’s behind bars, the mother advised those doing the same business to stop because they can be traced.

“Ako tambag nila nga mohunong na lang gyud sila sa ilang gibuhat kay bisan asa sila tago, ma-capture gihapon sila sa mga networks sa gawas sa nasud. (I advise them to stop what they are doing. They will still be identified by law enforcers abroad no matter how hard they try to hide their illegal operations),” she said.

Last June 1, 2011, the NBI-7 raided the house of a couple in sitio Sung-ok.  They parents were caught in the act staging a live sex show with five of their  children  and a young niece in front of a web camera for an online audience.

The trial is ongoing in Lapu-Lapu City.  Both parents are in jail and their children are in the care of government social workers.

Charges of human trafficking, child abuse and child pornography were filed against the couple./ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL