NBI rescues 12-year-old from cybersex den in Pateros

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Friday rescued a 12-year-old girl who had been forced to work in a cybersex den that was just right across a village official's residence and near a police station in Pateros.

 

Czar Eric Nuqui, head of the NBI Anti Human Trafficking Division (NBI-AHTRAD), said the cybersex den was nestled inside a two-storey house in Barangay Sta. Ana, Pateros, in front of the house of barangay councilor Jojo Nicdao and around 50 meters away from the Pateros Municipal Police Station.

 

The identity of the girl is being withheld because she is a minor.

 

"(She) was rescued as she was about to start disrobing for an agent who posed as a foreigner client before a webcam in a laptop," Nuqui told reporters.

 

Nuqui said he and his team learned about the illegal activity after being tipped off by the United States Homeland Security as part of a global fight against human trafficking.

 

Apart from rescuing the girl, authorities also arrested four people allegedly running the den. Nuqui identified one of them as Victor Amarillo, the alleged cybersex den operator.

 

The NBI official said they were supposed to rescue another victim but she was already gone when agents, along with Amarillo who agreed to cooperate, dropped by the girl's house. The girl's grandmother told authorities that the girl's parents had left the house while the NBI was raiding the den.

 

Nuqui said Amarillo, who has been enaged in the illegal activity for the last two years, would get $50 or around P2,250 for every customer. Of this, P300 or around $6 goes to the victim.

 

Nuqui said they had placed Amarillo under surveillance since year, but had a difficulty arresting him since he would move his business from one place to another.

 

Nuqui said Amarillo had admitted maintaining the cybersex den but insisted he never forced any of the girls to render their services.

 

Amarillo claimed the girls were the ones who approached him, volunteering their services for the cybersex den. —JST, GMA News