NGO urges review board to monitor pubs

A NON-GOVERNMENT organization (NGO) in Cagayan de Oro urged the Review and Classification Board (RCB) to intensify and strengthen their monitoring on all the entertainment pubs as numbers of registered and undocumented prostituted women increases.

Lalae Garcia of Tubaga Movement made the call on Friday during the commemoration of the 102nd International Women’s Day celebration.

Garcia said at least 600 prostituted women are registered in the city, not included the undocumented women who were also into the same trade.

“Most of these prostituted women came from Bukidnon, Agusan provinces and Butuan City who were also victims of human trafficking,” Garcia said.

Garcia added women and children trapped into prostitution are poor, uneducated and sometimes sexually abused.

“They have been trafficked and recruited. Kadaghanan kanila nailad or napugos na lang,” Garcia said adding that “they are usually forced and kept into prostitution through threats or actual acts of violence, until such time when the victims start believing that there is no other life for them outside of prostitution.”

An entrapment operation was conducted by operatives of the Regional Special Operation Group (RSOG) last year that led to the arrest of a female “pimp” at a drive-in motel along Kauswagan Highway in this city.

The 43-year-old suspected pimp identified as a certain “Maricar” (real name withheld), a resident of Mambayan in Balingasag town, Misamis Oriental, was arrested after receiving P5,000 from an RSOG operative who posed as customer in exchange for two female minors believed to be prostitutes.