The Cebu Provincial Board (PB) has invited the manager of a Cordova town resort where 15 minors were allegedly abused by a foreigner.
Mayor Adelino Sitoy was likewise invited to appear before the PB session on July 14.
Cordova Home Village Manager Ediliza Hansen and several officials from concerned government agencies will be asked to “shed light on the incident,” said a resolution sponsored by Boardmember Arleigh Sitoy.
Boardmember Sitoy, the son of the Cordova mayor, sponsored the resolution following the arrest of 51-year-old Australian Peter James Robinson who was apprehended by authorities in the company of 11 girls and four boys inside a resort last month.
“This august body finds it imperative and urgent that we should invite the abovementioned personalities and agencies to assess what could have been done to prevent such incident from happening again,” the resolution said. The resolution was unanimously approved by the PB last Monday.
Also invited to appear were: Chief Supt. Prudencio Bañas, chief of police of Central Visayas and Noemi Truya of the Children’s Legal Bureau, who initiated the joint raid with the police. Meanwhile, Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu President Cenelyn Manguilimotan, Department of Tourism Regional Director Rowena Luy-Montecillo and League of Municipalities in the Philippines Cebu Chapter President Democrito Diamante are also expected to attend.
The discussion will revolve around preventing sex tourism and cyberpornography especially in Cordova where a number of arrests have been made in the past three years, Sitoy said.
Charges were already filed in court against Robinson for qualified trafficking in violation of Republic Act 7610, the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act and Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009.
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