LAPU-LAPU City Hall and the Lapu-Lapu City police are monitoring several barangays in Cordova town for any cyberpornographic activities that may spill over to their area.
In yesterday’s press conference, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza said she ordered barangay officials, police and city social welfare workers to keep an eye on the children and any suspicious persons within their area.
Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, Lapu-Lapu City police chief, said barangays Basak, Subasbas and Marigondon of Cordova town were being monitored for cyberpornographic activities.
He said the monitoring was being conducted even before reports from Cebu Daily News and the Philippine Daily Inquirer identified Cordova town as one of the hot spots of cyberpornography involving minors in the country.
“We are not discounting the possibility that cyberpornographic activities in Cordova town may spill over to Lapu-Lapu City especially now that Cordova is identified as a hot spot,” Lawas said.
He said subdivisions in Lapu-Lapu City were also monitored because of the possibility that some foreign visitors may be operating online cyberporn dens in the privacy of their homes.
Radaza also questioned Cordova Councilor Angeles Gairanod’s proposal for Lapu-Lapu City and other Metro Cebu local government units to enact a similar Cordova ordinance regulating cash transfers in order to restrict cash movements of cyberporn clients.
“To Councilor Gairanod, ok na sila sa Cordova? Kay motan-aw naman siya sa laing lugar? (are they okay in Cordova? Because he’s looking at other places),” Radaza said.
The Philippine National Police earlier identified cyberpornography as rampant in both urban areas and the countryside, replacing the illegal drug trade as the number one criminal activity in the country.
Aside from Cordova town in Cebu, other hot spots include Angeles City in Pampanga province, Cagayan de Oro City and Metro Manila.
Senior Supt. Gilbert Sosa, chief of the PNP Anti-Transnational and Cyber Crime Division of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the Philippines is ranked among the top 10 countries in the world where cyberpornography is prevalent.
In Cebu, the Commission on the Welfare of Women and Children is working with US Homeland Security in cracking down on cyberporn rings in Cordova town and other areas in the province./ With an Inquirer report