Five women charged with abuse, trafficking

Police and the Children’s Legal Bureau yesterday filed a string of criminal charges against five women involved in the abuse of young girls made to perform lewd acts in front of a web camera in Cordova town.

The women were charged with violating Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003; Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law; and Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009.

Three women arrested last Tuesday and detained at the Cebu Provincial Police Office, will undergo inquest proceedings today at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.

The operator of the alleged cybersex den and house owner were charged with same offenses. The two remain at large.

Since the victims were minors, all respondents will face the charge of qualified trafficking, a non-bailable offense.

The special law’s confidentiality provisions ban the identification of both the victims and the accused in the media.

Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said she was happy with the Cordova municipal government and the CLB’s role.

Magpale said the Provincial Women’s Commission is ready to assist in prosecuting the case.

“There is a forensic expert from the US here. The social worker of Cordova knows what to do,” she said.

CLB lawyer Joan Saniel said they continue to monitor cybersex operations in Cordova.

“We expect them (operators) to lie low for now,” Saniel said.

CLB did not attach affidavits of the three victims in their complaints.

Saniel said the children are still “traumatized.”

The girls, who in the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, have to undergo debriefing.

Saniel said she believed they have a strong case because the respondents were arrested in the act of committing a crime.

During the police raid last Tuesday, three girls aged 9, 12 and 17 were rescued.

They were caught performing naked in front of the web camera.

A mother of one of the girls was calmly watching, as the two other respondents coached the minors on what to do.

The operator managed to escape while the house owner wasn’t around when the raid took place.

Magpale, meanwhile, said she has opened a Women and Children Concerns Unit where cyber pornography victims can be accommodated.

She said the PWC set up a room in the old post office where victims are sent for interviews.

“Some victims come to me directly. The procedure is that we send them to the PWC in that inconspicuous office. I have required that there be a room where they can be interviewed,” she said.