9 women, including 5 minors, rescued from sex den

MANILA, Philippines - Nine women, five of them minors, were rescued from a cybersex den in a raid conducted by a joint team of police operatives, Social Welfare officers and barangay officials late Tuesday night in Valenzuela City.

Senior Superintendent Ranier Idio, city police chief, said they also arrested the manager and maintainer-operator identified as Candelaria Manapat alias “Candy”, 22, single, a native of Angeles City in Pampanga and a resident of 39 Yanga St., Maysilo, Malabon City.

Manapat was not at the den when the raid was conducted but was spotted and pinpointed by one of the girls and was arrested while on her way home to 16Q Macaspac apartment in Malanday, Valenzuela.

PO2 Jess Sagisi said the team coordinated with Senior Superintendent Roberto Villanueva, Malabon City police chief, for Manapat’s arrest.

Charges of violating RA 9208 (Anti-Trafficking of Persons) and related laws of the land are being readied against the suspect. Abigail Clara Siscar, Valenzuela city social worker, said the five minors are now in their custody for “processing”.

Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian commended the raiders for the feat. He also offered one of the victims, resident of Bignay, Valenzuela, a college scholarship. The victim told Siscar she was forced to work at the sex den to pay her way to college. She said she was taking a course in information technology (IT) in an undisclosed school. Siscar said three minors have been endorsed to Quezon City where they live and one to Malabon.

Sagisi, senior investigator, told The STAR they also recovered a laptop computer, two CPU units, two tv monitors, two keyboards, three webcams, about 20 meters of broadband cable and four units of speakers.

Police records showed the raiding team rescued the girls at around 11 p.m. Tuesday.

The police acted on a tip provided by a former “performer” who became disgruntled after she was paid a measly P400 for 15 days work.

The girls told investigators they were being paid P5,000 to P6,000 a month depending on the kind of performance they make before the webcams.

The informant said they used to operate in Meycauayan but as the “heat” was turned on in their area, they transferred to Valenzuela City sometime in September 2008. She said she left Candy’s house in February this year.

According to Idio, the foreign clients paid the chatters P10 per minute that they “perform” in front of the Internet camera and most of them received a minimum of P4,000 a month.

“They operate 24 hours a day in three shifts, each allotted six to eight hours to do their sex acts online,” Idio said.

Cybersex den proliferation is hard to monitor but police said concerned agencies work “double time” to restrain them.