Female “illegal recruiter” of five Cebuanas arrested in Kanlaon City
A 22-year-old female engineering student was arrested Wednesday dawn in
Two policewomen of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch of the Cebu City Police went to Kanlaon to serve the arrest warrant to Sarah Jane Estrada, who was a student in one of the universities in
Sarah Jane and her 20-year-old sister Roselyn Estrada were indicted of the crime of trafficking in person, in which they allegedly recruited five Cebuanas to work as “singers” in
Roselyn, who has been working in
Roselyn is still at large but has been believed to be in hiding at
The
Cebu City Police director, Sr. Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, earlier told reporters that it was Sarah Jane who recruited the five Cebuanas who she introduced later to Roselyn, who had just came home from Malaysia on November last year.
Sarah Jane denied the allegations contending that did not even know the real work of her sister in
The five Cebuanas were neighbors and friends of the Estradas when Sarah Jane was residing at Susco, Banawa in barangay Guadalupe (
They accused the two sisters of luring them with job as singers in
One of the victims, a 21-year old high school graduate and a single mother, narrated that Sarah Jane recruited her on October 3 last year then introduced her to Roselyn, who in turn gave her and the other “recruits” money for processing of travel and employment documents.
After a period of “dance and singing training” and with passports and pocket money provided them, she said that Michelle, reportedly a friend of Roselyn, accompanied and assisted them at the Immigration Office in the
The “victims” left
They later learned that the P5,000 pocket money given them were partial salary, which was given by a Filipina named Irene, allegedly a girlfriend of their Malaysian big boss, Yek Nai Ming.
Yek and another Filipina girlfriend, Lisa, met them but the two took their passports, cellphones, and the rest of their pocket money, while warning them not to use phones and talk to the other women there.
On their first night on the job, they said that they were transported to the La Bamba and Fire pubhouses where they served as entertainers for customers on a table and drink with the latter.
The victim, in her affidavit, said that some drunken customers sexually abused them and touched their private parts, among other humiliating acts. She said they could not fight back because Yek monitored their movements via security cameras.
They later learned they have no monthly salaries and could only earn through commissions on every drinks they consumed with their customers.
On
The policemen instead took them back to the immigration office where Yek and his Filipina girlfriend were waiting for them. The couple berated them for escaping and ordered them to return to work.
They refused, and when they got the chance slipped past immigration officers and, with the help of some Filipinos, reached the Philippine Embassy. They were finally sent back home to
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