WITH the series of online pornography cases involving children in Bacolod, the city is now identified as one of the cybersex hot spots in the country, a police official said.
Superintendent Maria Shiela Portento, head of Women and Children Protection Center-Operation Management Division based in Camp Crame, told VoxPop Bacolod on Friday, July 14, that the city is considered as a “place of interest.”
“Naka-tatlo na (There are already three cases) in a short span of time,” she said, adding that “kailangan na tutukan (it has to be monitored).”
She said the Philippine authorities get tip and information from their foreign counterparts like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Australian Federal Police, and others.
“When these reports bear the same locations, it’s an indicator that the locality is a hot spot,” Portento said.
In the past two months, three entrapment operations were conducted to rescue several minors from suspected cybersex dens in Bacolod after their mothers and relatives exposed them to online sex shows.
In the first operation on May 5, the mother of the three victims was caught offering one of her daughters to an online predator from Australia while another girl was rescued in the second operation after her mother exploited her to a customer in the United States.
Two months later, six minors, including a two-year-old boy, and a female adult were rescued while a woman, who exploited her two minor children and two nieces, was arrested on July 13.
Stressing that cybersex cases in the country are alarming, Portento said the authorities still have to intensify awareness campaign through community-based approach especially that the facilitators of cybersex are also the family members of the minor victims.
She earlier explained that there are three factors why cybersex cases are prevalent in the country.
It is because the foreign predator can easily engage the victims because Filipinos can speak good English, the facilitators are family members so there’s trust, and the internet is readily accessible even in the slums.
Moreover, Portento said that investigation and build up of cases on cybercrime is different from the usual procedure.
She explained that investigators have to “engage” the pedophiles online, wherein “the police poseur purchaser pretends to be a client, but there is no instigation (on the part of the suspect) and no further exploitation (of the victims).”
Cyber patrol up
Senior Superintendent Jack Wanky, acting director of Bacolod City Police Office, said there’s “active” cyber patrolling nationwide, including Bacolod.
He said authorities make an incognito contact with suspected online predators to arrest them.
Wanky added that law enforcers from other countries have “active surveillance” for illegal transactions like trafficking of children and online pornography involving minors, which they immediately relay to the authorities in the Philippines to the rescue victims and apprehend the suspects.
He said that cyber pornography is a “lucrative business. Because if it is not, nobody will engage in that activity,” adding that there’s “easy money.”
Moreover, he said the cybersex cases in Bacolod are “very alarming,” though he noted that the police is “doing something.”
“We have these apprehensions,” he said.
On Thursday in Barangay 26, the 35-year-old female suspect was arrested after a week-long surveillance of her illegal online activities.
The team rescued her two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, as well as her two nieces, aged 17 and 22.
Three other girls, aged 5, 14 and 16, all neighbors of the suspect, were also rescued.
Authorities caught the woman offering her daughter to perform sexual acts for a customer online.
Wanky said the person online was actually a dummy customer, meaning an undercover police who pretended to be a client for the entrapment operation.
He said one of the customers of the suspect, a Norwegian, was recently arrested in Norway, which led to the discovery of her illegal activities.
All six minors, who are now in the custody of the City Department of Social Services and Development, are undergoing interventions while the suspect, who is detained at Police Station 4, is facing charges for violation of cybercrime law, child abuse, and anti-trafficking in person.
Some parents involved?
Wanky noted that some parents might be involved in the cybersex activities victimizing the minors due to their contradicting statements.
“Possibly, some of the parents know about it and have benefitted from it. From the interviews, their statements are contradicting. They say they don’t know about it, they also say they suspected that there’s an illegal activity in their neighbor’s house,” he said.
Wanky called on the community to help the authorities stop these cybercrime cases, adding there should be information drive among the residents to create awareness.
For his part, Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said the police should also investigate these parents as they might be on drugs.
He said he doesn’t understand why a parent would exploit their children online to earn a living.
Familiaran also appealed to his constituents to participate and cooperate with the authorities to address criminality, including cybercrimes.
The vice mayor said it’s harder to stop cybercrime as it is “discreet,” adding that you can’t have access to somebody’s home unless there is a search warrant, which is why the participation of the residents is “very important.”
He added that barangay officials, as frontliners, should also cooperate.
As to Bacolod being considered a cybersex hot spot due to the successive cyber pornography cases in the city, Familiaran said “we can’t conclude” yet as there are no statistics.