‘Gate 3’ was public knowledge

ASSISTANT City Prosecutor Liceria Lofranco-Rabillas said it was public knowledge that Gate 3 was a prostitution den.

“All taxi drivers knew where and what kind of place is Gate 3,” she said.

Rabillas said they were very happy that the principal accused, Valentino C. Martin, who owned Gate 3, was convicted by the court.

Martin, along with three alleged cohorts, were arrested by members of the Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force in Central Visayas in an entrapment operation inside the premises of Gate 3 in barangay Banilad, Cebu City on Dec. 3, 2010.

PO1 Cliferson Olandag and PO1 Nef Nemenzo posed as customers and transacted with Martin. They chose three girls and pretended to be interested in having sex with them in exchange of P7,500.

Nemenzo brought a surveillance camera which recorded the transaction.

The video, which was shown to the court during trial, revealed that it was Mariane S. Diaz, alyas Neneng, who received the payment from the two police officers.

Diaz and Martin divided the amount between themselves. Martin also asked for a P500 tip on top of the P7,500 commission they already got.

When the pre-arranged signal was relayed to the team leader, the other police officers barged into the joint and arrested the accused.

The raiding team rescued 34 girls whose age ranged from 19 to 30.

Police found condoms, pornographic magazines, notebooks containing the names of customers and the places of where the women were taken, hygiene cards, contraceptive pills, empty bullet shells, and other sex-related materials inside the brothel.

Before the entrapment, the police officers placed Gate 3 under surveillance. They were taken by Martin to a “display room” where they were made to choose from several women who can be taken out for sex.

The policemen questioned the girls they took out and were able to draw information from the victims that Gate 3 was indeed a prostitution den.

The victims each had a notebook in which they recorded the dates when they were taken out by customers, the nationality of their customers, the places they went to, their cash advances, and other matters of personal concern. /Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol