Imbestigador marks 10th anniversary with special episodes

The multi-awarded show Imbestigador, a flagship program of GMA Network, will mark its 10th anniversary with a series of special episodes that will begin to air on Sept. 18. Imbestigador, hosted by broadcast journalist Mike Enriquez, combines traditional investigative reporting and exposés with concrete action against guilty parties, by working with government and other agencies to bring criminals to justice. On Saturday, Sept. 18, Imbestigador will feature “Cyberkids," a special report on children as young as six years old involved in the cybersex trade, sometimes at the coercion of their own parents. Together with the National Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Imbestigador worked to uncover the mechanisms of the trade, rescue the children, and arrest the operators of cybersex dens. The next episode, set to air on Sept. 25, is titled “Smuggled Pinoys," which tackles the issue of human trafficking, specifically Filipinos who are smuggled to different parts of the world, delivered, exported, and sold like commodities to the highest bidders. The program documents and exposes the trail of the illegal trafficker, from methods of illicit recruitment by syndicates to the fate of victims who often end up as “modern-day slaves" in foreign countries. Finally, on October 2, the special episode series culminates with “A Decade of ‘Imbestigador’." The episode demonstrates how the show’s catchphrase — “Hindi ka namin tatantanan" — has also become an apt description for the show’s self-declared mission to “relentlessly help victims of exploitation and bring those accountable to justice." Over the past 10 years, Imbestigador has released over 500 episodes and 2,000 stories, and lists over 100,000 people as the direct beneficiaries of the program’s rescues and other operations. Imbestigador has also established a network of free legal clinics and its own action center, the “Sumbugan ng Bayan" office, which are open five days a week to receive complaints that are channeled to different agencies. — Larissa Mae Suarez/KBK, GMANews.TV