An NBI Manila agent talks to the teens boyfriend and his mother, who were taken custody for questioning in the NBI Cebu Office after the raid in barangay Cogon, Cordova town. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
She took sex video of niece at home as NBI agents arrived; US Homeland traced her in Cordova
She knew it was wrong but the $60 payment was easy to earn.
When agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) surprised her at home yesterday , 18-year-old Jaimie (not her real name) was using her mobile phone to take a video of her niece posing naked.
The girl was 10 years old.
The video was intended for a male customer in the United States, one of four whom Jaimie has been dealing with since last year.
“Gusto man gud nila og bata nga 11 years old and below so ang akong pag-umangkon ang akong gikuha. Ako siya giingnan nga tagaan nako siya og bawon. Nisugot ra pud siya. (They wanted minors 11 years old, and below so I asked my niece. I told her I’d give her money for snacks. She agreed),” said the teenage mother.
NBI agents, armed with a search warrant, raided Jaime’s house past 2 p.m. in barangay Cogon, Codova town in Mactan Island, Cebu and caught her redhanded.
NEW MODUS
The use of camperaphones in home-based cyberporn operations is a recent modus to avoid detection, said lawyer Czar Eric Nuqui, head of the NBI-Anti Trafficking Division (NBI-ATRAD) in Manila.
“Instead of using laptops or desktop computers which are easily visible, they use mobilephones. The scheme is actually new and is aimed at avoiding detection and for security precaution.
Perpetrators know they can easily transfer from one location to another, making it hard for investigators to track their location,” he told CDN.
Cordova town has been the location of the most arrests for child trafficking and cyberporn operations in Cebu since the first major bust there in 2008, based on police records.
Jaimie’s one-year-old son was turned over to a relative for the time being.
The NBI arrested Jaime, and her mother-in-law who was with four other minors in an adjacent house. Then operatives tracked down Jaime’s 22-year-old live-in-partner, an employee in the Mactan Export Processing Zone and took him into custody as well.
“We’re sure of Jaimie because we transacted with her. But we have to determine the specific participation of the two other suspects,” said the NBI operative.
The NBI rescued four girls and one boy—all aged 12 years old and below—and turned them over to the Department of Social Welfare and Services for counseling.
The NBI confiscated two mobile phones, an Android smartphone used by Jaimie, and another phone of her mother-in-law.
ONLINE DATING SITE
“Nahibalo ko nga sayop ang akong gibuhat pero tungod sa panginahanglan, nisulod ko sa ingon niining klase sa negosyo. (I knew it was wrong but I entered the business to support our needs,”Jaimie told CDN.
She said she met a foreigner on an online dating site about a year ago. He asked her to to pose naked and perform lewd acts for a fee. She accepted, and received P1,000. After that, she dealt with at least four other Americans interested in online pornography.
Jaimie was traced through information from the US Department of Homeland Security, said NBI 7 Assistant Director Augusto Isidoro.
“Some of her clients were already arrested in America. Homeland Security was able to trace the source of the pornographic materials recovered from the foreign suspects to Cebu,” he told CDN.
The lewd photos and videos of victims were forwarded by Homeland Security to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) and then to the NBI central office in Manila.
A decoy posed as a customer and transacted with Jamie through Facebook. She accepted a request to have her niece perform lewd moves online for US$60.
The money was sent to a money transfer company in Cebu and was received by Jaimie days ago.
With the assistance of NBI 7 agents, Manila operatives made the arrest in Cordova.
Isidoro said charges will be filed on Monday for violating Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 in relation to Republic Act 10364 or the “Expanded Anti-Trafficking in
Persons Act of 2012 as well as a violation of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
Since the victims are minors, the offense falls under qualified trafficking, a non-bailable offense. The penalty is a jail term of up to 40 years and a fine of P2 million to P5 million.
The charges will be filed with the Mandaue City Prosecutors’ Office.
The search warrant was issued by Judge Ferdinand Rafanan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 55 in Mandaue City.
While incidence of child prostitution and sexual exploitation in Cebu City bars and night clubs went down in 2015, Isidoro said human traffickers have shifted to cyberpornography which is harder to investigate.
“Instead of working in clubs, they prefer to exploit relatives to earn money. Cyberpornogaphy is difficult to address because operators do their work in the privacy of their homes,” said Nuqui.
“But with the cooperation of our counterparts in other countries as well as the IACAT in the Philippines, we will monitor them,” he added.
Isidoro warned those who engage in cyberponography that law enforcement agencies will not stop running after them.
“There will be no let up in our campaign against human trafficking. This is a very serious offense with harsh penalties. It destroys people and has a long-term effect on children. The victims are very young. They don’t know that their photos and videos are being spread around the world,” he said.
Regional State Prosecutor Fernando Gubalane said there should be no letup in the war against human trafficking.
“The state of human trafficking in Central Visayas is currently not alarming but there has been a continuous number of trafficking cases,” he said.
There 75 trafficking cases filed last year, a number which went down to 34 in the first half of this year, based on records of the RSP office.
The 18-year old cyberporn operator is taken away in handcuffs with a sheet cloth to cover her face. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
‘I needed money for milk and rice’
Jaimie, the 18-year-old mother, whose cyberporn racket at home in Cordova town was busted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), said she regretted her actions.
“Dako kaayo ang akong pagmahay ilabi na nga duna koy anak. (I really regret doing this especially since I have a son),” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.
Jaimie finished second year high school. Last year, she left her family to live with her boyfriend in Cordova town.
She said she needed money to buy milk for her one-year-old baby and rice for the family.
Jaimie said she started out posing and performing lewd moves for foreign cusomers only last year. Then she recruited her young niece to do it twice.
She didn’t know that the last Facebook transaction she had online was a trap set up by US Homeland Security.
Jaimie’s live-in partner alleged that he had no idea about a cyberponography business taking place at home.
“Wala gyud koy kalibutan ana. Zero knowledge ko ana. (I entirely have no idea about that),” he told CDN at the NBI 7 office where he and the two other suspects are detained.
The MPEZ production worker said he and Jaimie would sometimes take sex videos of themselves but that this was for private use.
“Private scandal lang to namo, pero walay live show. (Those videos were private scandals, but definitely no live shows),” he said.
His 39-year-old mother, a manicurist, said she spent most of her time at home and didn’t know anything.
The NBI who took the boyfriend and his mother into custody said they are still trying to determine how much they knew or participated in the cyberporn racket at home.