2 pimps convicted for trafficking

A Cebu City court meted two persons with life imprisonment for engaging four women in prostitution.

Jackie Maycabalong and Dave Pasilan were found guilty of human trafficking for pimping at least four persons in 2009.

The offense was deeemed committed in large scale since it was committed against three or more persons.

Aside from the life imprisonment, the convicts were also asked to pay P2.5 million in damages.

Regional Trial Court Judge Silvestre Maamo Jr. of Branch 17 handed the guilty verdict against Maycabalong and Pasilan, two friends residing in barangay Capitol Site, Cebu City last Tuesday.

“It can be said that the two accused trafficked the private offended parties by taking advantage of their vulnerability. Dave and Jackie entered into a transaction for money and profit in exchange for the sexual favors that the girls can offer,” the judge said.

Maycabalong and Pasilan were arrested in a police entrapment operation on June 18, 2009.

Ana (not her real name) testified that she was pimped by the two accused whom she met in her lodging house along Colon Street in downtown Cebu City through Maycabalong’s girlfriend.

At dawn on June 18, 2009, Ana said Pasilan brought her to Mango Avenue where a customer was looking for girls.

Maycabalong also fetched her girlfriend to accompany Ana and Pasilan.

They proceeded to Mango Avenue and searched for two more girls.

The group boarded a taxi and proceeded to Juana Osmeña Street.

Ana said Maycabalong and Pasilan disembarked from the taxi and approached a foreign and Filipino “customers.”

Pasilan then asked the four girls to disembark from the taxi.

Ana said they approached the two “customers” who chose from the four of them.

When they approached the “customers,” her two companion were chosen by the foreigner while she and the other girl with them was chosen by the Filipino “customer.”

The pimp offered the girls for P1,000 for each .

When the Filipino “customer” handed the money, police arrested the two accused.

They didn’t know that the Filipino “customer” was an undercover policeman.

Maycabalong, a ticketing officer of a bar, denied the allegations.

She said she, her girlfriend, Pasilan and one of the girls invited her to board a taxi to eat.

Maycabalong said she was surprised when policemen suddenly came and arrested them.

Pasilan, a painter, said Maycabalong and her girlfriend used to hang around his house in order to earn money through prostitution.

His testimony, along with the claims of the victim, was used by the court in convicting the two accused.

Republic Act 9208 or the Anti- Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 prohibits the “recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring, or receipt of persons with or without the victim’s consent or knowledge … for the purpose of exploitation, prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation.”