Model sues manager, events organizer for human trafficking

Contributed photo
Contributed photo

A TEENAGE model filed Wednesday, June 29, a case for human trafficking against her former manager and an events organizer for "trafficking in persons" before the City Prosecutors Office of Mandaue City.

She accused her former manager of conniving with the events organizer in setting her up to be sexually abused.

The charges arose from an incident in September 2021 in a hotel in Mandaue City where a supposed screening for a Bikini Open was set up by the manager, but the model ended up being abused instead by the events organizer.

The model, Hannah, (real name withheld for her privacy) said that in the evening of September 13, 2021, her manager Miles Marlon Wafer called her to screen for a Bikini Open and was surprised to see Renato Yosores Jr., alias Jay-r Yosores, who had made prior requests for hangouts, which she turned down.

Hannah stated in her affidavit-complaint against Wafer and Yosores that it was her manager who told her to go to the hotel for the screening, without telling her with whom she was meeting.

She was not also informed that she was the only one to be screened in the supposed photoshoot.

According to Hannah in her affidavit, she wanted to back out, but was unable to do so when Yosores set her up for a diner. She was then led into his car and brought to an inn Barangay Tipolo, Mandaue City where she was raped.

In a separate complaint for rape earlier filed by Hannah, she narrated that while inside one of the rooms, Yosores instructed her to wear swimsuit and to flirt with him.

She said that he boasted of his other models competing for his attention. She continued that he promised her that he will give her money so that her mother did not have to work hard, and that he would arrange for her to have “sugar daddies.”

She added that Yosores even took potshots at her cheap phone, and promised her a better phone if she sticks with him.

Hannah alleged that Yosores then raped her, before sending her home in his car.

The Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB) backed Hannah’s quest or justice in the belief that many other girls could be victims of the same scheme by sexual predators.

“There is sufficient cause for us to believe that what there was connivance between Wafer and Yosores. All the circumstances point to the fact that Hannah was led to the lion’s den. She was in such situation where she can no longer resist an impending abuse. The prize dangled before her was a contract for a bikini open where Wafer was expected to get 50 percent of whatever she earns,” said lawyer Kristine Marciana Laplana, legal officer of CLB and assisting counsel of Hannah.

Wafer and Yosores were charged for violating Section 4 (a) of Republic Act 10364 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, which is "To recruit, obtain, hire, provide, offer, transport, transfer, maintain, harbor, or receive a person by any means, including those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment or training or apprenticeship, for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, or sexual exploitation.

CLB is assisting Hannah under its program Strength-Counter-Trafficking in Persons Project with the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) and the Partnership for Development Assistance (PDAP).

Lawyer Noemi Truya-Abarientos, spokesperson of CLB, said: “This is not the first time that we learned that women and children are being lured into the glamour of the modeling and pageant world, only to be sexually abused and trafficked. We are glad that our client found the courage to pursue this case against her manager and the events organizer. She could have chosen to be silent, but she fought, not only for herself but also for others who were victimized by her perpetrators. We are hoping that her coming out will lead to a review of some practices in the modeling industry that make women and children open preys to sexual predators.” (PR)

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