Man charged with human trafficking

Charges of human trafficking were filed against a 24-year-old man who allegedly recruited three teenage girls for sexual exploitation.

Police arrested the accused during an entrapment operation in a KTV bar in uptown Cebu City last August 25.

No bail was recommended.

The law prohibits the identification of both the accused and the victims in the media.

The Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force received reports from various individuals regarding the recruitment of girls and women who were asked to have sex with clients in exchange for money.

Two policeman acted as poseur customers and transacted with the accused.

They met the accused who brought one of the victims in the KTV bar.

The police were told they can have sex with the girl for P2,000.

The suspect was arrested after he received the marked money from the police decoys.

Three victims were rescued and turned over to the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

In her affidavit, one of the victims said she received P200 after having sex with a customer.

“I used the money to buy myself clothes, sometimes to buy my family a pack of rice. Sometimes I will give my younger brother school allowance for food,” the victim said in Cebuano.

Under Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, anyone is not allowed to “recruit, transport, transfer; harbor, provide, or receive a person by any means, including those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment or training or apprenticeship, for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage.”