Tacloban City—Three victims of online sexual exploitation of children were rescued while two of the suspects, including a mother, were arrested in Samar province on Saturday.
Operatives from Women and Children’s Protection Center-Visayas Field Unit and Samar Provincial Police Office caught the suspects in two separate entrapment operations in Sta. Margarita and Calbayog City.
The suspects offered to stream live sexually explicit acts involving the victims, ages 10, 12 and 16, to paying customers abroad who watched them online.
The first suspect, a 33-year-old mother, in Barangay Cautod, Sta. Margarita was caught after she offered her 10-year-old daughter in exchange for P5,000 from an online customer who watched her performed live sexually explicit acts. The name of the mother was withheld by the responding policemen.
Four other children—ages 12, 7, 5 and 2—who were found inside the suspect’s house at the time of the arrest were also removed by the authorities.
The second suspect was identified as 20-year-old Mary Grace Soronel, in Barangay Obrero, Calbayog City.
She was arrested after offered two children, ages 12 and 16, to be sexually exploited online.
Police found smartphones believed to be used by the suspects for exploiting the children.
“The arrest of these perpetrators means protection of not only the children rescued from their ongoing abuse but also the protection of other children whom they would have eventually abused if they were not arrested. Every single child protected is worth it,” said Atty. Lucille Dejito, IJM Cebu’s Director of Legal Interventions.
“With just a smartphone, inexpensive access to the internet and enough English words to communicate in cybersex trade, perpetrators think that the cost of engaging in online sexual exploitation of children is low and that they can perpetuate it with impunity,” Dejito said.
“However, when there is aggressive and effective law enforcement, which increases detection and arrests, incarceration for a nonbailable offense with a stiff penalty of life imprisonment and fine of millions in pesos – this should send a strong message to OSEC perpetrators that the cost of engaging in OSEC is way higher than they thought,” she added.
WCPC Visayas Field Unit Chief Romeo Perigo warned online traffickers to “stop the sexual exploitation of children now when you still have time” as they intensified their surveillance operations through confidential intelligence reports they received.
The two rescued children are now under the safe custody of the Samar provincial social welfare and development office while the two suspects are detained at Calbayog City Police Station.
“Don’t wait that we catch you committing a crime. You will end up spending your life in jail. WCPC-VFU is watching you,” he added.
According to International Justice Mission, a global organization that protects the poor from violence, the July 28 operation was the first one conducted in Samar Province by the WCPC Visayas Field Unit.
The Unit already arrested 30 other suspected online traffickers in Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Negros Occidental since 2011.
As of June 2018, IJM has supported Philippine law enforcement agencies in the arrest of 146 OSEC perpetrators and in the rescue of 351 victims around the country since 2011.
The suspects faced charges for violations under Republic Act (RA) 9208, as amended or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, RA 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act in relation to RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act, and other related charges.
Meanwhile, IJM said the rescued victims need many social services, including therapy and rehabilitation.
“They would only be returned to the community after a comprehensive family home and risk assessment is conducted to confirm that the home is a safe place for the children and that they will no longer be sexually abused or exploited by their parents, relatives or neighbors,” it said.
As this developed, authorities urged the public with information about the abuse of children in “cyber-pornography” or “cybersex” to immediately report it to the WCPC Visayas Field Unit at (032) 410-8483.