Mandaue bar raided: 20 women rescued. In photo are some of the 20 women rescued inside a bar in Mandaue City. | Paul Lauro
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Law enforcers here rescued at least 20 women, who were victims of human trafficking, from an establishment in Mandaue City allegedly offering extra or adult services.
Agents from the National Bureau of Investigation-Cebu District Office (Cebdo) raided a bar along A.S. Fortuna Street in Brgy. Banilad, Mandaue City, last June 21.
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They also arrested one of the bar’s supervisors, a certain Riza Novela, who might potentially face charges for violating anti-human trafficking laws.
The operation stemmed from a tip from a concerned citizen, alleging that a bar there, 20 JTV Bar, had employees engaging in prostitution, which is illegal.
The bureau then dispatched two undercover agents to verify the information, and discovered that the bar employs dozens of receptionists whom they refer to as ‘customer care assistants.’
For a fee of P600, customers can have unlimited drinks then the store’s manager, a woman whom patrons called as the ‘Mamasang’, will then introduce them to their ‘customer care assistants.’
These so-called customer care assistants, most of whom happened to be single mothers or women struggling financially, would sit, sing, or dance with the customers.
They will also serve their drinks and other needs, including intimate frivolities through ‘dohan’ with a corresponding fee.
During the raid last June 21, NBI-Cebdo agents went undercover again, and arranged to have two customer care assistants to have dinner and go to a motel.
After paying for the two female employees, enforcers brought them instead to a nearby safehouse where social workers from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) debriefed them.
Then the other agents barged inside the bar, and rescued 18 more employees from the establishment. They also identified Novela as the bar’s Mamasang.
NBI-Cebdo has filed cases for Trafficking in Persons against Novela. They will also file the same charges against the bar owners.