Online friends paid for school fees of suspects’ kids

Not all foreign contacts of trafficking suspects Marivic Bensi and Chona Ando were sexual predators or so they claimed to authorities last Saturday.

Bensi recounted to police that she had a 65-year-old Canadian friend who paid for the school fees of her children. He also promised to send her children to college.

“Mohatag sad gani siya’g para palit gatas sa akong 3-year old (He also gives us money to buy milk for my 3-year old son),” Bensi said.

She admitted posing as a single mother which made the Canadian take pity on her.

Bensi and Ando will be charged with violating Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 at the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office this week.

The Children’s Legal Bureau said it is supporting the case against 33-year-old Bensi of sitio Sudtoggan Basak, Lapu-Lapu City and 46-year-old Ando of barangay Ibabao, Cordova town.

Bensi said she bought a second-hand laptop when she worked at the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) three years ago.

From her Canadian friend’s largesse, Bensi was able to buy a tablet computer and pay for her monthly Internet connection worth more than P1,000.

Ando retracted an earlier claim she made that Bensi undressed her niece, saying she heard Bensi reassure the girl that she won’t pose nude in front of foreigners.

She also recounted that she has an Australian friend who promised to fund her children’s education.

“But they were in school that’s why I brought my niece along to show to him,” Ando said.

Ando said a friend gave her the Australian’s email address and she chatted with him a month ago.

She said she only chats with him in Internet cafes because she has no computer. Ando said she visited Bensi and borrowed her laptop so she could contact her Australian friend.

Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, Lapu-Lapu City police chief, said they took Bensi’s laptop computer and tablet computer to use as evidence in their case against the two women. Lawas said they will present these gadgets to the prosecutor’s office and submit them to the anti-cyber crime unit of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) for examination.

Insp. Gaspar Magdadaro, Marigondon police precinct chief, said there were pornographic photos of minors in Bensi’s laptop which they couldn’t access since it was locked with a password.

“The anti-cyber crime unit has the expertise to open the laptop and examine the chatboxes to see if there is evidence of the crime,” he said. /Norman V. Mendoza, Correspondent