CAGAYAN de Oro City–A couple suspected of pimping their minor children to foreign clients by using “smart phones” was caught in the act in an entrapment laid by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Thursday.
Lawyer Alex Cabornay, head of NBI agents in Northern Mindanao, said that the operatives of the NBI’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division in Manila was able to track down the couple after one of the clients was nabbed earlier.
“We could not divulge the identity of the couple because it would also expose the identities of the children aged 4, 5 and 7 years old,” Cabornay told the Mindanao Daily News.
He said that the couple lives in Iligan City, a neighboring city 85-kilometer west of Cagayan De Oro City.
The AHTD in Manila sent operatives to the NBI regional office to coordinate with the local counterparts, particularly with the city and regional Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) prior to the entrapment operation.
According to Cabornay, the AHTD has identified the couple to be “selling,” “producing,” and “performing sexual explicit conducts online” in exchange for a sum of money sent through various money transfers.
He said that the couple have reportedly been selling explicit nude photos of their own minor children to foreign customers through email and CAM to CAM Video Chat.
The NBI AHTD also discovered that the woman-suspect has been previously and constantly being requested to become pregnant and to continuously send naked photos of her and her minor children, Cabornay said.
Cabornay said that the NBI-AHTD operatives seized the couple’s smart phone, which contains the explicit videos, photos, and transactions of money transfer.
He said that the NBI has filed multiple charges against the couple particularly the “Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act,” the “Cybercrime Prevention Act,” the “Anti-Child Pornography Act,” and the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009.”
Cabornay said that the couple is now detained at the NBI regional office while DSWD has taken custody of the children who might be turned over to the couple nearest relatives after complying with the legal requirements.
