A CEBU City trial court convicted on Monday, Aug. 13, a 32-year-old man who was arrested in 2014 after US immigration officials alerted Philippine authorities about his involvement in online trafficking.
Judge Ester Veloso of the Cebu City Regional Trial Court Branch 6 convicted Eul Vincent Ondoy Rodriguez of Qualified Trafficking in Persons. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and was ordered to pay P2.6 million in fine and damages.
Rodriguez was arrested last Feb. 13, 2014 by operatives of the Regional Intelligence Division (RID) and the Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force (RAHTTF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
The entrapment operation took place in a hotel in Cebu City.
His victim, a 13-year-old boy, was rescued and taken to an aftercare facility under the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
During the court trial, the victim testified that Rodriguez befriended him in 2012.
The following year, Rodriguez began bringing him to an internet café to engage in sexually explicit acts with Rodriguez, including forcing the 13-year-old victim to strip naked in front of the camera on over 20 separate occasions.
These “live” sexual abuse acts were broadcast and sold to foreign customers online in a case of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (Osec).
This is so far the 39th conviction of persons who trafficked children into online sexual exploitation in the Philippines as far as International Justice Mission-supported cases are concerned.
“Today’s conviction of another online trafficker – the 39th such conviction – is a reminder that the Philippine justice system is defending the rights of innocent children from the violence of online sexual exploitation. Online traffickers who rob children of dignity and freedom will only, in the end, forfeit their own freedom as the courts deliver justice for victims of OSEC throughout this nation,” said IJM Cebu Field Office Director lawyer John Tanagho. (PR)