THE party-list group Acts-OFW has cautioned Filipino women abroad against the dangers of seeing strangers they met through online dating sites.
“There is a dark side to chat and dating sites. The ugly truth is that human traffickers, as well as sexual predators also prowl these sites to stalk potential victims,” Acts-OFW Representative Aniceto Bertiz III said Wednesday, May 1.
“They deceptively use bogus profiles to start and cultivate relationships, with the intent of eventually entrapping would-be victims,” Bertiz said.
“It is not unusual for these monsters to lure targets with promises of a better life, including higher-paying job prospects,” Bertiz said.
Bertiz made the statement after a 35-year-old Army captain in Cyprus confessed to killing seven women and young girls, including three Filipinos, in the Mediterranean island-country.
The police in Cyprus said the confessed serial killer, now in custody, used a popular online dating site to catch his victims.
“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims, and our thoughts and prayers are with them,” Bertiz said.
Bertiz acknowledged that online dating sites have become increasingly popular among overseas Filipinos with the advent of mobile phone applications.
“It can be lonely when you are working and living in a foreign country, away from your family and friends,” said Bertiz, a former overseas worker.
The three Filipinos believed to be among the victims in the Cyprus serial killing case have been identified as Mary Rose Tiburcio, 38; Arian Palanas Lozano, 28; and Maricar Valdez Arquiola, 30.
All three were previously reported as missing in Cyprus, where they were employed as household service staff earning 400 Euros (P23,000) monthly.
Their bodies were recovered from an abandoned mine site that has turned into a lake some 20 miles from Nicosia, the national capital.
It is also believed that among the victims was Sierra Graze Seucalliuc, Tiburcio’s six-year-old child with her former Romanian boyfriend.
The authorities in Cyprus said the suspect’s other victims were a 36-year-old Romanian mother and her eight-year-old daughter, and a woman of Nepalese or Indian descent whose body was retrieved from a military firing range.
A group of German tourists accidentally stumbled upon Tiburcio’s body on April 14, breaking the serial killing case wide open.
In Lozano’s case, the suspect admitted to the police that he choked the victim to death while having sex with her.
The suspect also said during police interrogation that he had a thing for Filipino women.