2 get life terms, P4.6 million fine for online child sex trafficking

MANILA, Philippines — Two persons were sentenced to life imprisonment and fined P4.6 million for the online sexual exploitation of two girls aged seven and 17 in 2015.

In a decision dated Feb. 15, Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 262 Judge Joy Casihan-Dumlao found Victor Amarillo and Marjorie Imson guilty of two counts of illegal trafficking in persons and two counts of child pornography for sexually abusing the two girls in pay-per-view livestreamed video recordings seven years ago.

The two were arrested in March 2015 by a team of operatives from the National Bureau of Investigation’s Anti-Human Trafficking in Person Division and the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking following a tip from an informant.

The two were fined P3 million for the charges of illegal trafficking in persons and P1 million for child pornography. They were also ordered to pay their victims P500,000 in moral damages and P100,000 in exemplary damages.

Senior assistant state prosecutor Jinky Dedumo hailed the conviction after a “long and arduous battle.”

“We were also confronted with thousands of child sexual exploitation materials, which took a toll on our mental health. But victory was achieved through the multidisciplinary approach that we took,” she said.

Dedumo said they used the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, through which the United States Homeland Security provided “valuable assistance in further strengthening the prosecution’s evidence.”

Lawyer Reynaldo Bicol, International Justice Mission Manila program office director, said that the “convictions play a significant role in the restoration and healing of the survivors.”