Woman gets 20 years for trafficking of minors

CEBU CITY – A woman was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to trafficking minors, including her children, for online sexual exploitation.

The 38-year-old entered a plea bargain before Judge Mory Nueva of the Cebu City Regional Trial Court Branch 13 for the offense of Simple Trafficking in Persons, which carries a 20-year sentence.

According to case files, she was sexually abusing and exploiting Filipino children for online pedophiles in Australia, US and Germany.

In a sworn affidavit, one of the victims described how the woman forced her and other children to perform sexual acts on live-stream video in an abandoned store belonging to the woman’s partner.

The woman’s name is being withheld to protect the identity of her daughters.

She had been abusing the children for several years when police rescued them, the records indicated. The victims remain in the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) where they are receiving psycho-social treatment to overcome the years of abuse and trauma that they suffered at the hands of the trafficker.

Aside from the 20-year sentence, Judge Nueva also fined the woman R1 million, and ordered her to pay each victim R100,000 in moral damages and R100,000 in exemplary damages.

The woman was being paid by her online customers between R500 and R21,000.

A team from the PNP Women and Children Protection Center Visayas Field Unit (WCPCVFU) arrested her in Barangay Ibabao, Cordova, on September 8, 2016.

Eight minors, four of whom are her children – were rescued during the operation, which WCPC-VFU carried out with social workers from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7. The Interagency Council Against Trafficking Region 7 (IACAT-7) and International Justice Mission (IJM) also supported the operation.

The woman’s conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions against persons engaging in Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC).

She is the 14 person involved in IJMsupported cases to be convicted in the Philippines this year.

Ten other persons were convicted through plea bargaining – eight in Iligan City and two in Manila.

In Cebu, the woman is the third person to be convicted this year for creating and selling sexual abuse images of children.