Reacting to a STAR exposé on mail-order bride websites that "sell" Filipino women, Legarda also prodded the Bureau of Immigration to blacklist their maintainers and prevent them from entering the Philippines, and for the National Bureau of Investigation to identify their local contacts.
Legarda said such online services "brazenly exploit and degrade Filipino women."
The Florida-based Davis Place Internet Services, which maintains filipinawife.com, filipinalady.com and asiangirlpenpals.com, described Legarda’s statement as "libelous and slanderous."
The online firm is owned by one Delaney Davis, said to be married to a Filipina, Josephine Ponio of Mangagoy, Surigao del Sur, whom he met through the mail-order bride scheme.
In a statement posted on his websites, Davis’ firm claimed they are not doing "anything illegal," insisting that they do not operate in the Philippines and do not have partners here and that their sites are registered in the US.
"We comply with all laws of the United States government, including international copyright law, and registration and copyright laws of the United States of America," the websites’ state.
They add: "We understand that there are certain laws within the Philippines that (do) not allow publications to include Filipino women wanting to write to someone in a foreign land."
A specific law, Republic Act 6955, enacted in 1990, declares the mail-order bride scheme as illegal.
Another Florida-based mail-order bride website, filipina.com, has called Filipino lawmakers who had authored RA 6955 and other bills against sex trafficking as "asshole Philippine politicians."
The websites, one of them with the come-on "Filipina Lady: Join the Adventure," have catalogs of Filipino women and foreigners have to pay fees to get complete information on those who catch their fancy.
The fees can be paid through online credit card payment, postal money order or bank-to-bank money transfer. The sites also offer a membership scheme which allows interested parties access to old and new catalogs of Filipino women.