MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) Authorities rescued 42 alleged sex workers, including a 17-year-old girl, at a night club in Angeles City, Pampanga Thursday night, a police official said Friday.
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao Jr. said that the sex workers were rescued after the CIDG Women and Children Protection Division (WCPD), and the CIDG Task Force “Maverick”, swooped down on the Sweet Girl Honey Pot night club along Fields Avenue in Balibago, Angeles City, Pampanga at around 9:30 p.m.
Citing a report from Superintendent Emma Libunao who led the team in the raid, Pagdilao said that three foreigners, Australian nationals Barry Burston, 69, and Raymond Anderson, 57, and Michael Watt, 59, from New Zealand, were arrested for allegedly operating the club. Also nabbed were two ‘floor directors’ Judith Pajaron, 38, and Rossana Almeira, 22. The registered owner of the club, a certain Marites Relos, was not in the club during the raid.
Pagdilao said all those arrested during the raid will face charges for violating R.A. 9208 or the Trafficking in Person Act.
Still citing Libunao’s report, the CIDG director stated that the raid was conducted after they received a complaint from Ledilla Cortez on March 16. In her complaint, Cortez said that her 17-year-old missing niece was being held in the night club.
Her niece had been missing for a week when she filed the complaint, said Cortez. She told authorities that she received a text message from her niece, asking to be rescued, on May 14.
Pagdilao said that the victim told CIDG investigators that she was forced to stay, and work in the club because she owed the owner money for the club’s ‘uniform.’
Libunao said that the women were recruited from as far as Biliran, Leyte and Catarman, Samar.