NBI nabs Davao Oriental parents peddling own kids for cybersex
DAVAO CITY—On the premise of earning for their respective families, three adults in Lupon town, Davao Oriental province, forced their five minor children to perform lewd shows online that pander to the sexual desires of mainly European clients.
Lawyer Arcelito Albao, director of the National Bureau of Investigation Southeastern Mindanao Regional Office, said the children involved were aged 13, 11, 9, 7 and 4.
The suspects—a husband, his wife, and his brother—who were arrested by the NBI in Lupon’s Barangay San Jose on Tuesday and presented to the media on Thursday, claimed they were forced into the online sexual abuse and exploitation of their own children supposedly “to escape from poverty.”
But Albao noted that the couple’s home was “the only home that has a very strong internet connection, probably Starlink.”
Harassed
“They had a beautiful concrete house and the couple always tended drinks to usually large crowds of visitors,” Albao added.
Albao said the children, through the assistance of social workers, revealed they were harassed by their parents if they refused to perform the lewd shows.
Their arrest followed a raid done by the NBI in cooperation with social workers of the municipality of Lupon, Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, International Justice Mission and the Philippine National Police, on force of a search warrant issued the judge Emilio Dayanghirang of the Regional Trial Court of Lupon.
During the search, Albao said they chanced upon an ongoing live streaming of lewd acts the children were made to perform inside an 8-square-meter room, hence, the arrests and the rescue of the children by social workers.
Pay per view
Albao revealed their technical surveillance against the online sex den started last January and they did actual surveillance of the area three days before the raid.
He said the suspects’ neighbors were helpful in corroborating what they had gathered through the surveillance.
Albao said that based on the documents they gathered, the online sex show was on a pay-before-view basis.
“This kind of operation, this is international,” he said.
One show costs P16,000, based on a money transfer receipt NBI agents found. “There is also one for P125,000,” Albao noted.
“So, it depends on the client, and upon the consent of the three parents,” he said.
The Lupon operation was the first online sex trafficking case in Davao Oriental, a mainly agricultural province.
The NBI had filed for inquest proceedings on Wednesday.
“All the evidence is now before the court, on account of the cyber warrant it issued. So it’s up to the court now,” Albao said.
Among the evidence are cellphones, tablets and sex toys, he added.
Albao said there are possibilities of foreign handlers involved in the online sex den in Lupon.
According to NBI Agent Vicente Essex Minguez, “the show is available anytime of the day as long as there is a client.”
Minguez said the activity was conducted inside the room of the mother, a former overseas worker.
