Monday, March 17, 2008 Police arrests American, Filipina wife for child labor in Lapu-Lapu resto-bar
A TASK force arrested an American national and his Filipina wife and rescued 12 minors they allegedly employed as waitresses, during a raid on the suspects’ resto-bar in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City.
Two other foreigners, an American and an Australian, were also detained after allegedly meddling in the rescue effort Friday night.
PO3 Christian Torres of the Lapu-Lapu City police said that Australian Macky Douglas, 54, was with a naked worker of the bar inside a VIP room and had in his possession a video camera and six pictures of naked females, all minors.
The Regional Intelligence Division (RID) 7 said it learned about the illegal recruitment of children by the Cadillac Café and Resto-bar during a Christmas party of its operatives in Lapu-Lapu City last Dec. 27.
But because the PNP’s special unit had many other priorities, including counter-insurgency in Central Visayas, its chief Supt. Augusto Marquez referred the complaint to the Lapu-Lapu City police for action.
The complaints grew more persistent and more detailed in the next two months, prompting Marquez to order surveillance.
The rescue operation also involved the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the International Justice Commission (IJC), a non-government organization that works against human trafficking.
“I confirmed it myself first and I saw that they were really minors, 12 to 14 years old. They were made to wear mini-skirts and blouses that exposed their navels,” Marquez said in a mobile phone interview.
They team had no search warrant, but Marquez maintained the arrest was lawful because the evidence was strong that bar owners Julieta and Niel Allen Selman had committed child labor.
American national Claude Anthony Morgado, 46, reportedly tried to grab one of the girls, insisting she was his girlfriend, prompting the task force to arrest him for obstruction of justice.
Also seized were a laptop computer, two central processing units, two hard disks and several condoms.
The four suspects are currently detained at the Lapu-Lapu City detention cell, while the 12 rescued children were turned over to the DSWD.
Marquez said the labor department will issue a closure order against the resto-bar anytime this week. It will cite violations of Republic Act 7610, which prohibits child labor; RA 8282, for failing to register its workers with the Social Security System; and RA 6727, for failing to comply with the P250 daily minimum wage.
The minors are allegedly paid only P80 a day. The Dole issues exemptions from the minimum wage law only to businesses that are registered with the Barangay Micro Business Enterprises or those with fewer than 10 workers.
Marquez said their lawyers are assessing the confiscated evidence if they can add human trafficking and child prostitution to the complaints against the Selman couple.
“We are going to scan the laptop and the hard disks for any proof of other violations,” he said.
A Dole report showed there are 26,000 children in Central Visayas forced by poverty to leave school. Some of them work in karaoke or prostitution dens in Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities.
The sugar industry in Bogo town and Danao City in Cebu and in Oriental Negros employs about 70 percent of these minors. Others work in Lapu-Lapu’s firecracker factories. (AIV)
