TWELVE women were rescued last night by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 from a massage parlor on F. Ramos St., Cebu City, whose owner will be charged with human trafficking.
Supervising agent Atty. Wenceslao Galendez Jr. said that three employees of Bea’s Massage and Spa had sought the agency’s help because they were allegedly not paid unless they agreed to perform an “extra service.”
“They were hired as therapists but they were not given salaries until they did an extra service. They were forced to do the act in order to feed their families,” Galendez told Sun.Star Cebu.
The bureau planned a rescue operation, and two agents posed as clients when they went to the spa at 6:30 last night.
The agents found out that the women offer three types of extra services, which include sex for P500.
But operator Emilia Cañada, 43, denied the allegations, saying that she had prohibited the women from doing illegal acts.
“Kung naa sila’y gihimo nga kalokohan, ilaha na kay amo man nang gibawal. Kanang payment nga among dawaton sa counter, massage fee na (If they are doing bad things, it’s done of their own will because we prohibited those acts. The payment that we get at the counter is the massage fee),” Cañada said.
She said that it has been a month that she hasn’t run the parlor herself because of an illness.
Agents also confiscated three boxes of condoms from the parlor.
The girls hail from Dumaguete and Bohol.
Cañada will be facing charges for the violation of Republic Act 9208, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, a law “against human trafficking, sex tourism, sex slavery and child prostitution.”