CHARGES will be filed by the police against the recruiter of the 14 minors who were rescued from a fake cigarette factory in Bacolod City last Friday.
Pacita Tero, head of the City Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD), said Monday, August 28, that after the verification, it showed that only 14 minors, not 17 as initially reported, were rescued with 29 adults.
Thirteen of the children worked at the cigarette factory.
Tero said the minors will start returning to their hometown today in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte after the charges are filed against their recruiter for human trafficking charges.
The 29 adults were already sent back to Lanao del Norte.
On Friday, operatives of Bacolod City Police Office and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group confiscated several boxes and sacks of fake cigarettes in a factory at Purok Riverside, Barangay Bata where the minors were employed.
The minors were recruited from Iligan City in June to install antennas in Bacolod, but when they arrived they were assigned to repack the cigarettes in the factory.
Some of them have relatives who are members of the Muslim community in Escalante City, who will facilitate the transportation of the minors back to their hometown, Tero said.
“After the filing of the case, they can travel immediately via Escalante,” she added.