American retiree: I plan to marry 17-year-old Bogo girl

American pensioner David Ray Carpenter (seated) with the girl’s parents were covered up when they were presented to the media at the Vice Governor’s office. (CDN/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)

American pensioner David Ray Carpenter, 68, sat with his hands cuffed and his face covered with a black-and-white scarf.

“I did nothing wrong,” he said, three days after being arrested in his home with an underaged girl in barangay Odlot, Bogo City.

“I love her. We’re going to get married when she turns 18,” he told reporters at the office of Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale where he was presented by law enforcers yesterday.

But lawyer Noemi Truya, Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB) spokesperson, said Carpenter’s marriage offer is not a defense under the country’s anti-trafficking laws.

She said this case was a sad example of parents desiring to marry off their daughters to foreigners whom they see as their “economic salvation.”

Carpenter and the girl’s parents will face charges for violating Republic Act 7610, or the Anti-Child Abuse Act, and Republic Act 9208, or the Anti-Human Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

“Those are public offenses … these crimes cannot be pardoned by marriage. There is no cure for this,” Truya said.

Good girl

Carpenter claimed that in his home country, the United States, a minor could even get married at 15 years old or earlier.

“She’s the one who wanted to stay (in my house). She’s a good girl. You don’t find a girl like that everyday,” Carpenter said.

Bogo city police, armed with search warrant, caught Carpenter lying in bed with the high school graduate inside his home last Friday evening.

The girl was fully clothed and her mother lay next to her while her father sat on a couch.

Carpenter’s arrest came after weeks of surveillance by the Provincial Women’s Commission (PWC) and Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB).

Bad memory

The 17-year-old girl remains in the custody of social workers following Friday’s rescue.

According to the American retiree, who hails from the US state of North Carolina, they got together in March and started living together in April this year, after the girl graduated from high school.

“I’m old. I need somebody to take care of me and she was really good at that. She made sure I take my medicines. She massaged my legs when they cramped. I have a lot of problems with my legs,” he said.

Carpenter said he has a bad memory, forgetting to take his medications and that the minor helped him remember.

Carpenter was presented alongside the minor’s parents, who will also be charged for allegedly tolerating the relationship between their daughter and the foreigner.

The parents , both handcuffed, also had their faces covered with scarves when they were presented.

Good intentions

“We already have our passports. We were about to apply for a (US) visa,” the girl’s mother told reporters.

The mother said Carpenter offered to bring their family to the US when he eventually marries her there.

She came to Carpenter’s defense, saying that the foreigner had good intentions for their daughter.

The mother denied accepting gifts from Carpenter to soften them up.

“It is not true that he showered us with gifts. I only receive money from him for work,” she said.

Economic salvation

The mother earns a little on the side by doing laundry, house cleaning, or cooking.

According to Truya, CLB spokesperson, authorities believe the teenage girl was a victim of her own family.

“Obviously, the minor is a trafficked person, trafficked, unfortunately, by her own parents, sold to somebody. There was an exchange. There were considerations,” she said during a press conference during the presentation yesterday.

Truya said they don’t know how much exactly was given to the minor’s family.

But she said they are certain that there were several monetary considerations presented.

The lawyer said they were informed that Carpenter was supposed to go back to the US in July this year to process the marriage.

“But it should be noted that under our anti-human trafficking laws, marriage is not even a defense,” Truya said.

She said arranged marriages to a foreigner for monetary consideration is still trafficking and a chargeable offense.

If the victim is a child or the perpetrators are parents then the offense could even lead to life imprisonment.

Offenses may be classified as qualified trafficking if the victim is a minor, the perpetrators are parents or government officials, or the activities are syndicated.

Deterrent

The lawyer said she hopes that Carpenter’s case will be a deterrent to other predators.

“It’s not that it would make them hide their activities better. I hope that it will let them know that what they are doing is not allowed here in Cebu because they will be arrested,” she said.

Carpenter was the fifth foreigner arrested on charges of human trafficking in Bogo City.

Vice Gov. Magpale, co-chairperson of the PWC and the Provincial Council for the Welfare of Children (PCWC), said the girl will remain in an undisclosed center for children in the province.

“We are willing to see her through especially that the charges (against the perpetrators) will still be filed,” she said. She said they are focusing on the vulnerable areas in Cebu, like the northern part of the province which had been battered by supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013.