Is Cordova the cybersex capital of the Philippines?

Cybersex trade in Cordova, Cebu is all over the news and just like in 2011 when a couple was arrested for engaging in the same business using their own children and a young relative as objects of the unspeakable crime, last week agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) pounced on the parents of a 13-year-old girl for making her and two other minors perform lewd acts before an online customer.

Cybersex, or sexually explicit chat coupled with lewd acts over the Internet is a growing industry in many parts of the world.

After the discovery of the thriving cybersex trade in Pagsanjan, Laguna in 2011, the British Broadcasting Corp.or BBC published an article that pointed to the Philippines as one of many countries where the business is booming.

“An already established sex trade, high levels of poverty and a population that speaks at least basic English means there is a ready supply of girls,” according to BBC in reference to places where the cybersex trade flourishes.

In other words, the proliferation of cybersex in Cordova and in many other places did not just happen overnight, but rather as a result of a flesh trade and other criminal activities like drug trafficking and illegal gambling that freely operate.

Cybersex has become like a cottage industry in Cordova. The keenness of the US Homeland Security ICE in coming here to trace online pornographic materials being traded in homes in barangay Cogon and Ibabao made me pose the heading above: Is Cordova the cybersex capital of the Philippines?

Cybersex or any criminal activity for that matter cannot prosper if the police were serious in its duty to enforce law and safeguard public morals.

The NBI headlined the raids upon receiving intelligence information from the United States Homeland Security. If this suggests that the local police had been excluded from the operation, is it because the NBI and the US agency didn’t want the local police to mess it up?

The people of Cordova depend largely on fishing as their means of livelihood. If local elected officials resolve to go deeper into criminal activities they can start looking into reports why there is an upsurge of buying laptops, computers and cell phones sales made to villagers of Cogon and Ibabao, barangays where incidence of poverty is high.

Cybersex crimes have been going in on Cordova for more than seven years. A former parish priest had previously alerted local officials about this problem, but they chose to look the other way.

The high profile raid conducted by the NBI with the aid of the US Homeland Security in 2011 prompted the legislative council of Cordova to pass an ordinance requiring people owning laptops and computers to register their electronic equipment with the municipio. But since there was no coercive action attached to the ordinance because it would have been unconstitutional, people ignored it. It was as if the people understood the council passed a toothless law.

The spread of cybersex pornography is not just a disturbing sign. This paper’s editorial yesterday viewed it as a portent of the end times, and rightly so because even at its lowest moral ebb, past civilizations didn’t trade children for sexual exploitation. Nowadays, pedophilia is a global business and in the Philippines it is being aided by people who are supposed to teach morals to the young.

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In the midst of this terrifying development, the image of Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace arrives today to visit our beloved city.

The image is venerated in the Carmelite Monastery of Lipa City in Batangas. You might have heard of the story of the “rain of petals” by former Carmelite nun, Teresita L. Castillo. This supernatural event happened in 1948 and has penetrated the souls of many people.

From the Mactan Cebu International Airport, the image of Mary Mediatrix of All Grace will be brought to the Parish of San Isidro Labrador in barangay Talamban, Cebu City where a mass will be celebrated to be followed by prayer vigil throughout the day.

So many spiritual conversions and physical healings have been wrought by heartfelt prayers to the Holy Virgin of Lipa and today, we need to offer prayers for our young people, the future of our motherland.