8 indicted for trafficking in Clark scam hub raid

MANILA --- Prosecutors have indicted eight people for human trafficking in relation to a raid in Pampanga in early May to rescue more than 1,000 victims who had been duped into working in a cryptocurrency investment scam.

More than 900 of those rescued were foreign nationals and have been allowed to go back to their home countries with their penalties and fines for violations of immigration law waived, the Department of Justice also said Friday.

The DOJ also said that the prosecutor general has approved the May 22 resolution indicting eight arrested in the raid for trafficking.

According to earlier news reports, at least a dozen had been arrested at the Clark Sun Valley Hub Corp. in Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

Some foreigners rescued during the raid are still awaiting reparation and are in the shared custody of the Bureau of Immigration and the police AntiCybercrime Group.

The DOJ said that 465 Filipinos rescued at the site had received financial aid and endorsed to the Department of Labor and Employment for further assistance.

Police in May also rescued 17 Malaysian nationals who had reportedly complained of poor working conditions at their job site in Kawit, Cavite. A separate raid in Parañaque City in the same month led to the rescue of 43 foreigners who had also been working in similar conditions.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who last year sounded the alarm on similar scams that have led to Filipinos being traffickied to cryptocurrency scam operations in Myanmar, warned in May that the scheme was also being done in the Philippines.

Hontiveros said “in a hearing led by the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, that “large condominium buildings are being repurposed to be used as living and working facilities for trafficked human beings being forced to perform scams on hapless victims.” —