At least 40 girls, many of them minors, were rescued from a bar raided by government operatives in Cebu City before dawn Friday, a radio report said Saturday.

The girls were caught dancing and entertaining customers inside the bar when law enforcers entered, radio dzBB’s Cebu affiliate Orchids Lapincao reported.

Many of the girls were found to be minors. The girls were taken into the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Central Visayas office.

The report said the government raiding team also arrested some of the girls’ handlers, but failed to find the bar owner. They did not immediately identify the handlers.

Government agents are now preparing charges of human trafficking violation of the labor code against the girls’ handlers, the report said. — LBG, GMA News