The police have freed eight girls aged 13 to 18 from a house in Taguig City where they were allegedly being forced to engage in sexual acts for online viewers in the United States, Japan and other countries.
The raid, which was conducted on Wednesday night, also led to the arrest of the mastermind, Christopher Villanueva, 33; and the mother of three of the children, authorities said Thursday.
Villanueva was accused of forcing the girls to have sex with him and with each other in front of web cameras.
Policemen, acting on a tip from the US Department of Homeland Security, found sex toys, web cameras and laptop computers during the raid on Villanueva’s house in Taguig City.
The mother of three of the abused children who lives nearby was also arrested after she was accused of forcing her children to engage in sex for money. The other children are also believed to be residents in the area.
Online child abuse was the leading cyber-related crime in the country last year, making up 46 percent of the 200 reported cases, according to the Department of Justice.
According to Alex Nuqui, head of the National Bureau of Investigation’s antihuman trafficking division, Villanueva reportedly charged customers in the US, Britain, Australia and Japan between $50 and $100 to watch the children having sex.
He was caught after a US agent, posing as an online customer, struck a deal to sleep with one of the girls at his house for P5,000.
Nuqui said that Villanueva told the undercover US agent in an online chat: “They (the children) will fulfill all your fantasies. Come to the Philippines.”
His arrest is the second time in three months that US assistance has led Philippine authorities to cybersex suspects as part of an international operation to stamp out pedophile rings operating online.
In February, a 51-year-old Australian, Gerard Peter Scully, was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing eight girls, including an infant, and murdering one of them.
In March, four Filipinos were arrested and two children were rescued in another raid in Pateros.