Australian sentenced to life for trafficking

The Regional Trial Court (RTC) has convicted an Australian national, who was arrested six years ago in Barangay Inayagan, Naga City for allegedly recruiting and maintaining minor girls in his house for sexual exploitation.

RTC Branch 6 Judge Ester Veloso, in her 34-page decision, found Angelo Farina guilty beyond reasonable doubt of qualified trafficking and two counts of child abuse.

Farina was arrested in his residence last July 20, 2011, pursuant to the implementation of the search warrant.

Police Officer 2 Ronald Bahian of the Crime Scene Investigation of the Cebu Provincial Police Office alleged that prior to Farina's arrest, they conducted surveillance operations following reports from a barangay tanod that minor girls, not related to Farina, went to his house even beyond midnight onboard a motorcycle.

Disguising as motorcyclefor-hire driver, Bahian was able to confirm the report of the tanod. Thus, a search warrant was conducted.

Bahian learned that the minors stayed in a small hut inside the compound of Farina.

Their operation on July 20 led to the arrest of Farina and the rescue of the minors.

One of the minors, aged 16, claimed that Farina made them perform sexual services.

In his testimony, Farina denied the accusations filed against him. He claimed he was alone in his house.

However, he admitted that sometimes those minors stayed at night in his house with consent from their respective parents because they were living in a mountainous barangay and it was too far from their school.

He admitted that he supported two of the minors that got rescued with their schooling.

He also denied that he made them as sex toys or they were maintained by him for the purposes of prostitution and sexual exploitation.

If ever he molested them, they could have already escaped and never returned and they could have reported sexual exploitation and advances, if there was any, to their parents, to the barangay or to the police but they did not, Farina stressed.

Farina said he was impotent. He was incapable of having sex since he was already 79 during his arrest.

Despite Farina's denials, Veloso did not agree with his arguments.

She said there was evidence that Farina was taking advantage on the vulnerability of the minors by giving them financial support and sending them to school.

“There is no question that (the victims) were the scholars of the accused. The said minors testified that the accused sent them to school and gave them weekly allowances. They also stayed in his house and did the household chores,” read the decision, adding the minors also testified that they were made to perform sexual services and were used by Farina.

For the qualified trafficking, Farina was sentenced to 20 to 40 years of imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of P2 million. On top of that, Farina also ordered to pay P600,000 damages to the four victims with interest of six percent per annum from the date of the finality of the decision until fully paid, as damages.

Aside from qualified trafficking, Veloso found Farina guilty of Section 5 (b), Article II with a penalty of 10 years to 17 years of imprisonment and ordered to pay P330,000 damages to the four victims; and Section 10(b) with a penalty of eight years to ten years of imprisonment with a fine of P50,000, both under Republic Act 7610 or child abuse.