By Uriel Quiinguing, Contributing Editor .
AUTHORITIES freed 56 people, mostly children, from online sexual exploitation in 13 separate operations in Northern Mindanao as of November, this year, a police official said yesterday.
Capt. Princess O. Bergado, team leader from the Philippine National Police’s Women and Children Protection Center Mindanao Field Unit, said they arrested 10 suspects and appropriately charged them in court.
“Mindanao-wide, from 2015 to November this year, we have rescued 161 persons in 38 operations,” said Bergado, who spoke via Zoom in a media orientation on online sexual exploitation of children (Osec) in a restaurant in Cagayan de Oro.
The WCPC team leader said 46 of those rescued in Northern Mindanao were minors, the youngest is barely six years old.
She said among the nine suspects in their pursuit in Ozamiz City on Nov. 12, is a child in conflict with the law. Nine other minors were freed from having to perform sexually explicit acts for a fee online.
This, after a pregnant woman was also arrested in Ozamiz on Sept. 26 who was tagged behind another Osec case where six people, including two minors, were her hired virtual sex performers.
On Nov. 7, the WCPC team also arrested two suspects in Iligan City and rescued five residents, including three children.
“Iligan has been a ‘hotspot’ since 2015 and lately including Ozamiz and Kolambugan, Lanao del Norte,” said Bergado.
There is increasing trend of Osec incidents in the region, she said. Except for 2016 when their team focused on “traditional trafficking” of persons, the WCPC team observed an increasing trend of Osec by the number of those rescued: 44 in 2019; 42 in 2018; 7 in 2017; and 12 in 2015.
She said access to the internet, broadcast-capable cameras, English language proficiency, money transfer agency infrastructure, and prevailing poverty are among the enabling factors through pay-per-view/live streaming.
All suspects, Bergado said, have been charged with violation of the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012 (R. A. 10364) and Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 (R.A. 9775).
The media orientation was part of a collaborative action against trafficking project of Plan International and Balay Mindanaw Foundation Inc. backed by the Regional Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Riacat) and Philippine Information Agency Region 10.
Disclaimer
Mindanao Gold Star Daily holds the copyrights of all articles and photos in perpetuity. Any unauthorized reproduction in any platform, electronic and hardcopy, shall be liable for copyright infringement under the Intellectual Property Rights Law of the Philippines.
