GOVERNMENT agents filed criminal charges against a suspected member of a syndicate engaged in trafficking undocumented Filipina workers pretending to be boxers to the Middle East.
Charged with human trafficking before the Pasay City Prosecutors Office was Rexsan Naval Godala, who was arrested by immigration agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport-Terminal 1 on Sunday.
Godala, who is now detained at the Interagency Council Against Trafficking office in Naia, was about to board a flight to Bangkok with his two women companions when immigration agents noticed something suspicious on their documents.
Investigation showed that the suspect introduced himself as a professional trainer and claimed he was just escorting the two women, whom the authorities described as suspicious because of their unusual getup and jersey shirts emblazoned with a logo of the Philippine flag.
“It turned out that he was not a boxing trainer and that the Games and Amusement Board [GAB] license and letter of authority purportedly signed by GAB chairman Abraham Mitra which he presented are spurious,” said Immigration commissioner Jaime Morente.
The women, whose name temporarily withheld, told the Immigration officers that upon arriving in Bangkok they would take a connecting flight to Dubai where they will employed as domestic helper and waitress.
Immigration records also showed that this was not the first time that Godala committed the infraction. The suspect was able to escort two other women using the same modus. The women never returned to the country despite Godala’s claim at the time that the “boxers” would return after only two days.
On Aug. 28, the suspect also sucessfully escorted to Thailand three other women, who he claimed were scheduled to participate in a boxing match there.