SHE ‘SOLD’ HER SISTERS
Suspect, a 20-year-old mother in Dumlog, Talisay City, tells authorities she had no other means of buying milk and food for her 2 young children She’s the second woman caught in a raid against cybersex operations in Cebu since Tuesday; a woman in Cordova
Authorities arrested a 20-yearold mother in an entrapment for allegedly operating online pornography in her house in Baran- gay Dumlog, Talisay City past 11 a.m. yesterday.
Chief Insp. Leo Dofiles, the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Office (RACO) 7 commander, said they rescued the suspect’s two sisters, 16 and 17 years old.
The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking personnel led by Regional State Prosecutor Fernando Gubalane took part in the operation.
He said that Salome (not her real name) used a smart phone to capture the lewd acts of her sisters and she allegedly charged P5,000 a client per show. The suspect’s phone was seized and it will be examined for other evidence.
Salome has no other means of livelihood.
Under surveillance
The rescued minors, who are students, were brought to Department of Social Welfare and Development 7 for stress debriefing and counseling.
Dofiles did not identify the suspect to protect the identity of the minors.
RACO 7 received a report about Salome’s illegal activity last month and a series of surveillance operations confirmed her cyber pornography business.
Dofiles believed the anonymous informant is a neighbor of the suspect.
Salome will be charged with violating Republic Act (RA) 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012), RA 9775 (Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009), RA 10364 (Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012) and RA 7610 (Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act). She has been denied bail. Salome cried during the interview with SunStar Cebu.
“I used the money to buy milk and food for my two-yearold and nine- month- old boys,” she told SunStar Cebu’s Johanna O. Bajenting.
She admitted that she knew that what she was doing was wrong but she said that poverty forced her to engage in online pornography.
A foreigner from Chicago, United States had introduced her to the business.
Salome said she now regrets her actions, considering the cases she’ll be facing and the prospect of not being able to take care of her children.
“What will happen to them now? Even though they have a father the social workers still took them,” she said, in tears.
Her live-in partner is a 22-yearold trisikad driver.
Following Salome’s arrest, Dumlog officials plan to strengthen their monitoring activities by strictly registering all residents in their barangay.
That way they can identify the “suspicious” characters, Barangay Captain Nelson Abellana told SunStar Cebu.
Abellana said that they’ve been conducting a barangay-wide census since last year. Not all, though, have registered since some are transients or renters and only stay for a few months.
This was not the first time that police raided the barangay in connection with cybersex.
In 2014, a Swedish national was arrested after he tried to order two girls to do lewd acts in front of the camera. /