Shining through the shadows

The real names of the victims were not used in this article to protect their privacy.

(PART 1)

She could easily spend her free time being somewhere else.

Yet in between classes, Martha chooses to stay at the side of the road near her school in downtown Cebu City to be with impoverished children.

Her drive comes from the sheer desire to give poor kids, like her, a lift.

With wide brown papers, notebooks, pens, and other educational materials, the 18-year-old college student gathers together street kids around her.

They then sit on small plastic chairs in a tent at a nearby park as the children, some accompanied by their parents, listen intently to her lessons that range from the alphabet to the basics of counting.

Teaching street children, she said, helps provide base level education for young people.

“Dili ko gusto nga maparehas sila sa amoa. (I don’t want these kids to suffer the same fate as ours),” said Martha, who volunteers for the Cebu City Task Force on Street Children as one of its street educators.

Martha knows from where she speaks as it was only seven years ago, at the tender age of eleven, when she, herself, hit rock bottom.

Martha and her five siblings were unwittingly used as models for a home-based cybersex enterprise run by their parents at their house in Cordova town, Mactan Island.

Upon their parents instructions, they would undress and pose naked in front of a web camera for the pleasure of online pedophiles.

For each live online performance, Martha’s family earned between $25 to $100 (P1,000 to P5,000).

Cyberporn bust

The cybersex enterprise was busted on June 1, 2011 when agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), tipped-off by the Provincial Women’s Commission, raided their house and rescued the children.

Theirs was the first major cyber pornography operation in Cebu involving minors who were victimized by their own kin.

Martha’s parents were charged with child pornography, qualified human trafficking, and child abuse; and have remained in jail, without bail, as the trial continues at the Regional Trial Court in Mandaue City.

While the law against human trafficking allows the media to identify the accused, Cebu Daily News is withholding the names of the couple and the private-run child care center that has custody of the rescued teens to protect the victims’ identity.

Billion-dollar industry

Cybersex is a billion-dollar global industry that proliferates with easy access on the Internet.

Based on a report from the International Justice Mission (IJM), majority of the customers of child pornography are located in the US, Europe, Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

For a live video feed of young girls and boys, customers either pay through their credit card or via a money transfer service to directly pay the cyber porn operators.

“It’s not easy to be a victim of your own parents,” said Martha, the third of seven siblings.

Although they somehow felt that their family’s livelihood was bizarre, Martha said they did not know that it was wrong.

“Nagtuo mi nga okay ra ang amo gibuhat sa una. Abi namo og duwa-duwa lang to. (We thought what we were doing was okay. We thought we were just playing games),” she recalled, adding that even their neighbors in barangay Ibabao were doing the same thing.

Safe haven

Martha’s mother was eight months pregnant when arrested. She later gave birth to a son inside the Lapu-Lapu City Jail.

The couple’s seventh child was handed over to the care of a private, non-profit institution which has also provided a safe haven for Martha and her other siblings aged 16, 12, 10, and 6 in the last seven years.

A middle-aged, unmarried woman whom they call “nanay” serves as their guardian.

Nanay has been trained to take care of children who had either been abandoned or whose parents languished in jail.

Martha’s two elder brothers, aged 22 and 20, are out of the center with one working as a cook in a cruise ship abroad, and the other as production operator in an industrial company.

“It’s extremely hard to be away from our parents. But despite the challenges we encounter, we must not give up. I heard of victims like us who attempted to end their life. But that should not be the case,” she said.

New life

Today, life is entirely different for Martha who has learned to move on from the vestiges of her terrible past.

“There has been so much difference in my life now. I’ve accepted what happened,” she said.

“Of course, I was traumatized. But instead of thinking about it in a negative way, I used it as a stepping stone and moved on with my life,” added

Martha who keeps a personal diary to remind her of how she has conquered life’s miseries.

Inspired by the social workers who monitored them since they were rescued, Martha took up Bachelor of Science in Social Work at a private university in Cebu.

She is on her final year in college.

Her course is a four-year degree program that deals with the study of social units such as families and communities, the various issues that affect them, and how social work can help improve, if not immediately resolve, these conditions.

At present, the teenager is one of the street educators of the Task Force for Street Children.

She devotes her time to educate and empower underprivileged kids from Mondays to Fridays during her class breaks.

“Aside from basic literacy lessons, I tell them about their rights as children in the same manner that parents must know about their responsibilities,” said Martha.

“It’s just amazing to be able to reach out to children. I learn a lot from them,” she added.

She said she also wants to return to their place and educate people about the menace of cyber pornography.

“There are many ways to earn a living, and they just have to think well without compromising the rights of children. Parents should consider our future,” Martha said.

“For those who continue to expose their children to cyber pornography, there’s still time to change. Do it now while it’s still early. Remember regrets
always come last,” she added.

Moving forward

Though victimized by their own parents, Martha said she and her siblings do not harbor ill feelings towards them.

At the core, Martha is still a good daughter who talks about how she and her siblings miss their parents.

“I’ll always love them. Though we don’t see each other often now, I hope they remain strong in jail,” she said.

“What we’re going through as a family isn’t easy. But I believe there is a reason for everything. It’s up to us to give up or to move forward in life,” added Martha.

(To be continued)