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Saturday, January 21, 2006
'Harem' raided under stiffer law
CEBU CITY -- Trafficking charges were filed Friday against the owner and manager of a popular bar in Mandaue City, after a raid uncovered that the establishment employed minors as nude dancers and entertainers.
Nicole Tan Cabillan, Club Harem's floor manager, would be held without bail for violations of Republic Act (RA) 9208, if the Office of the Mandaue City Prosecutor's Office finds basis to elevate the complaint to the Regional Trial Court.
If convicted, she could be sentenced to a life term and fined P2 million or higher for the trafficking of minors.
Rodolfo Rivas Jr., the identified bar owner, has yet to be arrested.
The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act penalizes any person who "maintains or hires a person to engage in prostitution or pornography."
It defines the crime as the recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring, or receipt of persons with or without the victim's consent or knowledge for the purpose of exploitation, sexual or otherwise.
The law was enacted in 2003.
"It has more teeth than the older Republic Act 7610, or the anti-child abuse law," said NBI investigator Jedidah Jife. She heads the bureau's women and child protection unit.
Exploitation
Under RA 9208, the act of transporting or receiving and employing a person for any form of exploitation is deemed punishable, with stiff penalties.
Operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided the bar late Thursday night.
One agent negotiated with the floor manager to take one of the girls out and paid with bills dusted with a special powder.
An arrest was made as soon as the money changed hands. The raid followed. The operatives rounded up 28 women, including Cabillan.
Six of the women looked like minors so the operatives took them to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC). Four, according to a report signed by Dr. Bonifacio David, were confirmed to be below 18.
None of the women, other than Cabillan, were impleaded in the complaint or charged with any other crime. They were all released to the Department of Social Welfare and Development Friday afternoon.
"Operatives who posed as customers were able to observe nude shows performed by dancers on stage. They were also able to establish through conversation with the floor manager that GROs or dancers would be taken out of the club for sexual intercourse, provided that the bar fine amounting to P5,000 was paid," the bureau said in the transmittal letter NBI Director for Central Visayas Medardo de Lemos sent to the Office of the Mandaue City Prosecutor.
Efforts
"We believe that we have a very strong case against the bar's management. We do not only have the testimony of our operatives but also the presence of the four minors caught during the raid," Ernesto Macabare, NBI Central Visayas executive officer, said in a separate interview.
Although cases have been filed in different courts in the country, mostly involving traffickers, the Department of Justice has yet to secure a conviction.
The US State Department, in a June 3, 2005 report, had placed the Philippines in "tier 2" watch list category.
Countries included under this category are those whose governments do not fully comply with the standards of the US Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, but are making significant efforts to meet the standards.
The report cited the Philippines' failure to show evidence of increasing efforts to convict traffickers.
However, the US State Department acknowledged the Philippine government's efforts to implement the anti-trafficking law. (KNR of Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(January 21, 2006 issue)
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