Charges filed versus 3 Koreans, 1 Filipina

Nine Korean tourists who allegedly engaged the services of young women for sex cover their faces as they were presented to the media at the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas office in Cebu City earlier this month. (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.

The four respondents are at large.

NBI-7 Special Investigator Arnel Pura said the complaint will undergo the regular preliminary investigation and 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 NBI-7 arrested nine Korean tourists for allegedly engaging in sexual relations with young Cebuanas aged 19 to 21 years old who worked for a Korean-run escort service group.

The escort service was allegedly provided by a group composed of three Koreans and their Filipina cohort who operated the sex tour packages via the internet for a fee of P250,000 per tourist.

Seven of the nine arrested Koreans namely, Jongnam Ham, Jongin Han, Munsu Lee, Hosik Park, Joontae Kim, Jae Gyu Kim and Dongkil Kim were charged for “use of trafficked persons” but immediately posted P120,000 bail each last March 7.

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 only covers 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. Deray’s claim was refuted by an NBI source who told CDN that BI-7 received copies of the court’s release order which included a condition that the Koreans could not travel without court permission.

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.