NBI nabs parents who use kids for online sex photos

She speaks English fluently.

That probably came from dealing with Americans who watched her on the Internet.

The 13-year-old girl, who was paid  to pose naked in front of a web camera at home, was rescued on Sunday dawn by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), who arrested her parents for operating a cyberporn business at home.

The house in sitio Sun-ok, barangay Ibabaw in Cordova town, Cebu is the same neighborhood where NBI agents raided another home-based cyberporn  enterprise involving children in June 2011.

In both raids, parents were arrested and charged with qualified human trafficking  for exposing their children online to pedophiles for a fee.

Now behind bars, the arrested 35-year-old mother expressed remorse, saying the family was poor and needed the money.

She said she usually earned P1,000 per transaction and that the activity was “widespread” in Cordova with many of her neighbors were doing the same thing.

(Cebu Daily News is withholding the parent’s names to avoid identifying the minor victims.)

“Kahibaw ko nga sayop ang akong gibuhat pero napugos ra gyud ko tungod sa panginahanglan. Gi-allow nako ang akong anak nga ma-expose sa cyberpornography tungod pud sa kawad-on. (I know what I did was wrong but I was forced to do it  because of our needs.  I exposed my daughter to cyberpornography due to poverty),” said the woman. She  covered her face with a towel in the NBI-7 stockade when she talked to reporters.

The woman also tried to spare her husband, a former fisherman, by insisting that he wasn’t part of the illegl business she admits starting three years ago.

In Sunday’s raid, NBI agents in Cebu and Manila worked with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement which is an agency under the Department of Homeland Security, and the International Justice Mission.

“I pity our children. We’re trying our best that there will be no letup in the campaign against human trafficking, ” said Cebu Acting Gov. Agnes Magpale, who helped spur the first 2011 raid in Cordova after a video of child pornography taken in the fishing town reached her desk in the Provincial Women’s Commission.

“Actually, there are more cases in other towns. There are still several places in Cordova as well as in other localities in Cebu which are under survillance,” she told Cebu Daily News.

Magpale  said the U.S. Homeland Security met with her yesterday and vowed to conduct more operations in the future.

A third raid in July 2011 took place in  barangay Cogon, Cordova.  A a mother was arrested for using a neighbor’s house as a studio to let her daughters, aged 8 and 9, and a 15-year-old cousin strip and dance in front of a web camera.

A similar setup was found in the household raided last Sunday by the NBI. The arrested mother and father  remain in NBI custody.

Aside from their high school daughter, a 14-year-old female cousin was at home with her 17-year-old boyfriend when NBI agents suddenly  appeared with a warrant of arrest at 1 a.m. on Sunday.

The minors were turned over to government social workers, but the boy escaped.

The  arrested mother said  her daughter performed for online customers “less than ten times” and that other neighborhood kids aged 8 to 10  would sometimes participate.

She said she started the business in 2010, transacting  with foreigners online and receiving payments through cash transfers. This happened after she and her husband stopped working.

She said her former job was as data encoder in three companies in the Mactan Export Processing Zone.

“Nagbasol gyud ko syempre. Mangayo kog pasaylo sa akong gibuhat sa akong anak tungod sa panglantaw nga mahatag ang tanan niyang gikinahanglan pinaagi niining trabahoa. (I regret what I did. I apologize to my daughter for exposing her to cyberpornography. My intention was to give her everything that she needs through this illegal business),” she said.

The mother said her 37-year-old husband, whom she married 13 years ago, used to work as a fisherman before he got sick three years ago.

She insisted that her spouse wasn’t part of the business, and had repeatedly told her to stop.

Meanwhile her husband told reporters he willing to testify against his wife in court.

“Willing ko motestigo batok sa akong asawa. Nagsulti ra ko sa tinuod. Nganong giaapil man ko. Wala man koy labot. Kahibaw ko sa iyang gibuhat. Ako siyang gipahimangnoan apan wala siya nituman nako. (I’m willing to testify against my wife. I’m just telling the truth. Why was I impleaded in the case? I’m not part of her illegal operations. I kept telling her to stop what she’s doing. But she didn’t pay attention to me),” he said.

Both spouses were charged yesterday before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office for violaton four laws.

They are Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009, Republic Act 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, as well as a grave scandal in relation to the Electronic Commerce Act.

Since minor victims are involved, the offense falls under qualified trafficking, a non-bailable offense.

If convicted, the accused face life imprisonment and a fine of P2 million to P5 million.

The charges were filed directly with the Regional Trial Court in Mandaue City, which has jursidiction over cases in Cordova town. /Ador Vincent S. Mayol, Reporter