ILIGAN CITY -- Authorities arrested an online trafficker after she offered to sexually abuse her eight-year-old daughter and stream live the abuse in exchange for money from an online predator.
Operatives from the Philippine National Police’s Women and Children Protection Center–Mindanao Field Unit (WCPC-MFU) carried out an entrapment operation at the suspect’s residence in Iligan City around 10 a.m. Thursday, June 27.
Aside from her daughter, police and social workers also rescued the suspect’s three-year-old niece, who was shown in sexually explicit materials the suspect transmitted to her online customer.
Authorities also removed the suspect’s baby boy, around four months old, from the scene, as he was considered a child at-risk.
An 11-year-old girl was also removed for assessment to determine if she, too, was a victim.
All four children are now in the custody of the Iligan City Social Welfare and Development Office, where they are receiving much needed trauma-informed interventions.
The suspect, 28, had been placed under surveillance since March this year.
Police learned that she transmitted child sexual exploitation materials involving the 11-year-old girl as well as adult pornographic materials.
During the entrapment, she not only offered to sexually abuse her daughter and stream live the sexually explicit acts for a paying online abuser, but also showed her naked three-year-old niece on camera.
At the suspect’s residence, police found receipts from money transfers made by a foreigner. Later, the suspect disclosed to police that she had transmitted sexually explicit materials involving children in exchange for money from a foreign predator.
“The Philippines has maintained its Tier 1 status in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report this year as a result of collaborative efforts exerted by WCPC, other law enforcement agencies, NGOs
(nongovernment units), LGUs (local government units) and other private individuals to end human trafficking. The recent accomplishment of WCPC-MFU is a result of our extensive collaboration with partner agencies and the recently concluded training that capacitated and equipped PNP’s online investigators. We will not stop working to end human trafficking,” said Colonel Christine Tan, chief of WCPC-MFU.
She was referring to the Prosecuting Online Sexual Exploitation Training organized by the International Justice Mission, US Department of Justice’s Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (US DOJ OPDAT), and Philippines’ DOJ Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking held in Davao last week.
Supporting Thursday's operations were the Regional Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking-Northern Mindanao, Iligan City Police Office (through the Special Weapons and Tactics and the Iligan City Police Station 4’s Women and Children Protection Desk), Iligan City Social Welfare and Development Office, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and IJM.
Occurring in communities all over the Philippines, online sexual exploitation of children (Osec) is a crime that violates the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act or Republic Act (RA) 9208 (as amended by RA 10364), which comes with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of P2 million to P5 million.
Typical Osec offenses also violate RA 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012) and RA 9775 (Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009). Both have
penalties equivalent to 20 to 40 years imprisonment. (PR)