CV 3rd in cases filed
Region 7 ranked third with most number of human trafficking cases filed in court throughout the country from 2003 to 2017.
Regional State Prosecutor Fernando Gubalane, also the chief of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) in Central Visayas, said out of the 17 regions in the Philippines, the National Capital Region ranked first with the most number of human trafficking cases.
NCR has 991 cases of trafficking in persons filed before the court, where 1,890 are victims and 1,227 are accused. It is followed by Region 3 with 387 cases in court with 578 victims and 843 accused.
In Region 7, the number of cases filed in court against human traffickers reached 357, with 1,012 victims and 325 accused.
Gubalane said 107 of the cases of human trafficking are still pending in court. A total of 67 have already been decided in which 25 resulted in dismissal and 42 resulted in conviction.
The regional state prosecutor said the usual reason why a trafficking case is dismissed is because the victim or victims lost interest in testifying in the case.
In Cebu Province, Cebu City ranked first with most number of human trafficking cases filed. The IACAT recorded 181 cases in Cebu City, followed by Lapu-Lapu City with 62 cases, and Mandaue City with 47 cases.
While Gubalane said the data gives a positive impact on the campaign since it shows that law enforcement authorities are active in conducting rescue operations, he also said it also shows there are a lot of trafficking activities in Region 7.
Yesterday, the Cebu provincial government through the Provincial Women's Commission, the International Justice Mission, the PNP anticybercrime group, and local chief executives of San Fernando, Talisay, Cordova, Mandaue City, and Bogo City gathered to discuss updates of the online sexual exploitation of children in Cebu as well as the continuous effort against it.
IJM director John Tanagho said from 2011 to 2018 they have recorded 99 victims of online sexual exploitation, 54 of them were 12 years old and below, 32 are minors above 12 years old, and 13 were adults. Ninety-three percent of the victims were females and the rest were males.
Tanagho said with the trend they see from the operations they conducted from 2011 to 2018, law enforcement authorities are strengthening their campaign against these crimes.
He said communities are also more aware of the problem of online sexual exploitation that also contributes to the arrest of suspects.
Tanagho said he sees the decrease of online sexual exploitation in the province with the continuous effort in strengthening the campaign against trafficking.