Coincidence or not, the arrest of nine South Koreans who participated in a sex tour in Cebu came in the days leading up to the annual observance of International Women’s Day.
The arrest of these nine South Koreans, while also a testament to the vigilance and determination of law enforcement agencies to stamp out human trafficking in this part of the country, also showed that the trafficking menace remains quite elusive and profitable for its practitioners.
The scheme is as simple as it is insidious: interested South Koreans can partake of an online sex tour package complete with all the trimmings — round-trip tickets, prime hotel accommodations and a tour of Cebu’s tourist spots — along with the company of female escorts aged 19 to 21 years old.
The racket is run by South Koreans who conspire with the locals to bring these girls to the male tourists presumably in exchange for a hefty fee. While the existence of a so-called “Korean mafia” had been denied before, it cannot be repudiated that there are unscrupulous foreigners wishing to make a profit out of exploiting women and minors.
Such was the case of Australian Peter Scully, who is imprisoned at the Lumbia City Jail in Cagayan de Oro for conspiring along with Liezyl Margallo to forcibly prostitute underage girls for their foreign sex predator clients abroad.
The good thing with the detained South Korean tourists is that they will not only stay jailed, but in the event they do get out — which is unlikely since there are South Koreans previously arrested and detained for a similar offense here in Cebu who remains under lock and key to this day — they will also face similar charges in their home country.
Such a heavy price to pay for foreign tourists out to have a good time but at the expense of our country’s women and children. Unfortunately, while the vigilance is there, the trafficking syndicates remain at large.
That’s for the national government, local governments and foreign countries to jointly work together to stop and eradicate, but communities can also do their share in stopping the trafficking of women through continuous vigilance.
Already there is an ordinance that requires hotels, resorts and other commercial establishments to monitor and report to the law enforcement agencies the presence of foreigners and locals seen in the company of underage girls that are unrelated to them.
Like any illegal activity such as drug use and peddling, trafficking can only be stopped if the parents reject any offers for them to sell their children for prostitution either in its traditional or online forms.
The parents are not only the frontliners; they are the first and best defense against traffickers and the community should be there to help their families resist these predators’ offers for money and a comfortable life in exchange for their pound of flesh.
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