Cordova cyberporn raid leaves 1-year-old boy without parents

A one-year-old boy is  left in the care of his grandmother after  Saturday’s cybercrime raid in Cordova town  resulted in the arrest of the child’s parents, who were both charged with human trafficking.

The grandmother said  she couldn’t believe what happened.

“Nasurpresa gyud ko. Wala ko nasayod ana. (I’m completely surprised. I have no idea about that),” said 45-year-old Anita,  (not her real name).

Her daughter Jaimie, 18, and her live-in partner Arnold, 22, were arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) at home in barangay Cogon, Cordova.

The teenage mother was caught taking a video of her 10-year-old niece posing naked.

The US Department of Homeland Security traced a cyberporn transaction to the mobile phone in Cordova, where Jaime has been taking sex videos and photos and selling them on line since last year.

Four other children aged 5 to 12 were rescued  in the operation.

When she visited the NBI 7 office after the raid,  Anita  chose not to confront her 18-year-old daughter, the fifth of seven children.

Anita does laundry for  neighbors while her husband is a fisherman.

A year ago, Jaimie left  home to live with her boyfriend in a  small house  just a few meters away from her parents’ home in Cogon.

When Cebu Daily News  visited yesterday,  Jaimie’s house was open, with just a few things left.

The  four-by-three meters wide house used to be a sari-sari store and an Internet cafe in 2010.

Four old desktop computers were junked outside the house.

A neighbor, who requested anonymity, said they were shocked when NBI agents raided Jaimie’s house last Saturday.

“We really didn’t expect that they were into cyberpornography because the house is so small,” the neighbor said.

Jaimie, in an interview after her arrest,  said she needed the money to buy milk for her son .

She admitted taking photos and videos  of herself and selling them on line to porn customers for a year.

She said she asked her niece to pose twice as well.

Her boyfriend, a production workers in the Mactan Export Processing Zone, claimed he had no idea Jaime was earning from online pornography.

She and Arnold were charged with 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 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009.

Since all five victims are minors, the offense falls under qualified trafficking, a non-bailable case.

Read more...