NBI nabs man recruiting sex slaves to Macau

Macario Canaba presented himself as a fashion show manager when he enticed six Filipino women to work as models in Macau, China. The women, who are in their 20s, were promised a monthly salary of HK$8,000 (roughly equivalent to P60,000). They were introduced to a woman named Analiza Fajardo, who identified herself as a part-time script writer in a television network. Canaba and Fajardo even escorted the young women to Macau. Upon arrival in the territory, Fajardo took their return tickets, passports, pocket money and other travel papers, then brought to a night club. The women ended up working as sex slaves. The night club owner gave them a quota of 24 hours of sexual activity with customers within 23 days of their stay in Macau. Failure to meet the quota would mean forfeiture of their salary. When their 23-day tourist visa expired, they came to know that Fajardo had run away with their earnings. They were just glad that the club owner shouldered their plane fare going back to Manila. The women said there were other Filipinos in the club who were not allowed to go home because they have not met the 24 hours of sexual activity with their male clients. Other victims managed to escape and returned to the Philippines. When they have settled back in Manila, the women found Canaba and confronted him about the job as prostitutes in Macau. Canada denied participation on the forced prostitution. But then, the women said Canaba offered them another job: as prostitutes in Hong Kong, considering that they already have gained experience in Macau. The women played along with Canaba, pretending they were interested in the new job offer, and even agreed to pay P5,000 for processing fee. Unknown to Canaba, the women had sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) which, in turn, found out from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) that he was not authorized to recruit workers for overseas employment. Canaba finally fell into the NBI entrapment Monday afternoon in a fastfood chain in Guadalupe, Makati City Canaba is now facing criminal cases of large-scale illegal recruitment, qualified trafficking and estafa.-GMANews.TV