NBI-7 Special Investigator Arnel Pura (in black shirt). (CDN FILE PHOTO)
Qualified trafficking charges were filed against three Korean nationals and a Filipina for allegedly recruiting local women to have sex with Korean tourists in Cebu.
The National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) on Wednesday sued Jaesung Kim, Ducphun Kim, a certain Choi, and Maribeth Bontog before the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutors’ Office.
Since the four respondents are at large, the complaint will undergo the regular preliminary investigation, said NBI-7 Special Investigator Arnel Pura.
The respondents will be given the chance to submit their counter-affidavits and refute the allegations.
If there are sufficient evidence against them, Pura said the case will be elevated before the Regional Trial Court.
The offense is non-bailable.
“We will certainly look for them once arrest warrants will be issued by the court,” Pura said in an interview.
Last March 3, agents of the NBI-7 arrested nine Korean tourists for allegedly engaging in sexual relations with young Cebuanas aged 19 to 21 years old who work for a Korean-run escort service group.
The escort service was provided by a group of three Koreans and their Filipina cohort who operated via the internet the sex tour packages, a human trafficking offense in the Philippines, for a fee of P250,000 per tourist.
Seven of the nine arrested Koreans were charged for “use of trafficked persons” but immediately posted P120,000 bail last March 7.
They were Jongnam Ham, Jongin Han, Munsu Lee, Hosik Park, Joontae Kim, Jae Gyu Kim and Dongkil Kim.
According to the NBI, the two other Koreans—Namgyun Shin and Byeonghae Park—were not charged because during the raid they were not with their Filipina sex escorts.
The Korean nationals flew back to South Korea after they were released from detention.
Pura said they delivered the Korean nationals to the Bureau of Immigration (BI-7) as the NBI’s task covers only the criminal aspect of the situation.
BI-7 lawyer Ronaldo Deray explained that he was not informed by NBI of the travel restrictions imposed by the court.
As a result, he said the BI did not prevent the accused from traveling back home after their passports were turned over by NBI to the immigration bureau.