Two Filipina Sex Worker Recruiters Sentenced To Life In Prison

[Old55]

In what has been a huge victory against human trafficking, two women were sentenced last week to life imprisonment for recruiting girls for sexual exploitation in Cebu City. Aside from the jail term, Judge Bienvenido Saniel Jr. also ordered Marlyn Buhisan and Marichu Tawi to pay a fine of at least P2 million.

Aside from the two women, Saniel also sentenced Antonio Planteras to 15 years in prison for allowing his lodging house to be used as venue for sexual exploitation. The judge also imposed a P500,000 fine on Planteras.

Their case stemmed from an entrapment operation in 2009 in which four girls, including a minor, were rescued from prostitution. Before their arrest, the police conducted surveillance operation on the flesh business of Buhisan, Tawi, and Planteras.

For the public, the conviction was another triumph in the campaign against human trafficking and sexual exploitation. For the authorities, the conviction served as a strong warning to those who are still in such illegal business.

However, the fight against human trafficking is far from over. There are many human traffickers out there whose operations remain undetected by authorities. In fact, there are those whose business has been flourishing because they managed to get protection by bribing the authorities.

Therefore, there is a need to heighten the crusade. If the country is determined to shed its notorious tag as a haven for human trafficking and sexual exploitation, the government should leave no stone unturned in the effort to defeat the menace.

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And part of the intensified drive should include immediate dispensing of cases. It cannot be denied that many human trafficking cases remain unresolved because the concerned judges have some other priorities.

Before their conviction, Buhisan, Tawi, and Planteras have been tried by the court for five years. By Philippine standard, the case's duration was normal. But courts handling human trafficking cases should double their time to send a clear message that the government is really serious in combating the enemies.

[SubicSteve]

Excellent, now arrest and convict the mayor of Angeles for licensing girls to work in bars and be "exploited".  And don't forget to arrest and convict the hotel owners there for allowing their hotels to be used as a venue for exploitation.

 

 

 

Hypocrites all of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dave Hounddriver]

If the country is determined to shed its notorious tag as a haven for human trafficking and sexual exploitation, the government should leave no stone unturned in the effort to defeat the menace.

 

There is no country in the world that has been able to 'beat' the oldest profession.  First world countries have learned to either license it or push it into the dark corners.  But of course the Philippines will do better than everyone else in the world by 'turning over stones'.  Well, good luck with that.

[Methersgate]

I will draw a line between bar owners and mamasans in the Philippines and recruiters for overseas prostitution - usually dignified with the name of "managers" for "entertainers" as girls recruited for prostitution abroad are usually told, and half believe, that they are being recruited as "singers", "dancers" or "cocktail hostesses" or even (genuine case) "flower arrangers".

 

A girl in her own country has some control over what she gets up to; a girl in Japan, Korea, Macao, Taiwan, Malaysia has in effect none, and very little in Hong Kong or Singapore, as the "manager" will confiscate her passport on arrival. She is for practical purposes a sex slave.

 

I am therefore delighted to see this case and I hope, probably in vain, to see many more.

[Dave Hounddriver]

I will draw a line between bar owners and mamasans in the Philippines and recruiters for overseas prostitution

 

I can agree with you but I thought this was a case of:

 

recruiting girls for sexual exploitation in Cebu City.

 

Perhaps I misunderstood?  To me that simply means offering jobs to girls who apply to work at the local strip clubs / bikini bars / girlie bars or whatever they are euphemistically being called these days.

[Old55]

Excellent, now arrest and convict the mayor of Angeles for licensing girls to work in bars and be "exploited".  And don't forget to arrest and convict the hotel owners there for allowing their hotels to be used as a venue for exploitation.

 

 

 

Hypocrites all of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

It looks like the hotel owner got fifteen years.

 

"Aside from the two women, Saniel also sentenced Antonio Planteras to 15 years in prison for allowing his lodging house to be used as venue for sexual exploitation. The judge also imposed a P500,000 fine on Planteras."

[Old55]

"Director Jesse Rudy of the International Justice Mission (IJM), a civil society group that took part in the operation five years ago, said he found the ruling appropriate."

 

This was a local crime in Cebu City Philippines. Marlyn Buhisan and Marichu Tawi were pimping Filipinas from a lodge owned by Antonio Planteras. It's not very clear but it seems there may have been minors involved. 

      Sex deal for P900 ends in jail for 3 adults

 

Thursday, November 27, 2014

CEBU. The Regional Trial Court found (from left) Marilyn Buhisan and Marichu Tawi guilty of human trafficking for selling two women and a girl for sex in March 2009. Antonio Planteras (not in photo) of the New Perlito’s Lodge on Osmeña Blvd. in Cebu City was also convicted of promoting trafficking in persons. (Ruel Rosello)

CEBU -- Regional Trial Court Judge Bienvenido Saniel Jr. convicted of human trafficking on Wednesday two women who sold three persons for sex in 2009, not knowing that their supposed client was a policeman.

The judge found Marilyn Buhisan and Marichu Tawi guilty of violating Republic Act 9208 (Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act) and sentenced them to life imprisonment. He also ordered them to pay a fine of P2 million each.

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Judge Saniel also convicted Antonio Planteras of “promoting trafficking in persons” and sentenced him to 15 years in jail and a fine of P500,000. Planteras owned the lodge where the transaction took place.

“The court is morally convinced of their guilt,” Saniel said in his 25-page decision.

Director Jesse Rudy of the International Justice Mission (IJM), a civil society group that took part in the operation five years ago, said he found the ruling appropriate.

“If we are to end trafficking in persons in the Philippines, it is going to take a strong, coordinated response from law enforcement, prosecution and the courts,” he said.

“We see that the justice system has taken note of this crime,” Rudy added. “If we are to end the crime, there is going to have to be a deterrence through law enforcement and there is going to be significant punishment handed down to those engaged in the crime as providers, pimps and as owners who allowed these activities to go on inside their establishments.”

Bail cancelled

Planteras, however, said he was not involved in trafficking. “Wala ko’y sala ani, oy (I did not commit anything wrong),” he said.

After the verdict, Planteras, who had been out on bail during the trial, was handcuffed by personnel of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). His bail was cancelled and his arrest, ordered.

Planteras’s relatives, along with Buhisan and Tawi, cried when they heard the decision. Planteras said he will file a motion for reconsideration.

In March 2009, the police’s Regional Special Investigation Unit placed under surveillance the New Perlito’s Lodge on Osmeña Blvd. in Cebu City to verify reports that girls were being sold there for sex.

When authorities confirmed human trafficking was going on inside the lodge, the police carried out an entrapment against Buhisan and Planteras.

Tawi and Buhisan would provide girls to customers for a fee, then refer them to the lodge where the customers could have sex with the girls.

Planteras owned the lodge, while Tawi and Buhisan offered four girls for sex, at P300 per girl.

For P900

A policeman who posed as a customer paid for three girls, one of them a minor. Buhisan received the P900 in marked bills, and Tawi got P200 as her commission. The entire transaction happened inside the lodge, in the presence of Planteras, the court was told.

The Carbon Police Station arrested the three and filed criminal complaints against them, citing the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.

During the trial, one of the four prosecution witnesses told Judge Saniel that she was in a food store on Colon St. when Buhisan approached and asked her whether she wanted money. Leah (real name withheld) said she understood what Buhisan meant and agreed because she was hungry.

She said she later met three other minors who also agreed to have sex with men for money. Leah said she received P200 for every customer, while Buhisan received P100.

Tawi, for her part, testified that Buhisan introduced her to customers who wanted to have sex. She admitted that she knew the victims.

But Planteras, in his testimony, denied he was involved in the trafficking of women. He said his lodge had never been raided by the police since it began operations in 2004. He also said he did not know Buhisan or Tawi.

Judgment Day

Buhisan told the court that she was working as a helper in the lodge when four people arrived and looked for girls to have sex with. She told them they had no girls. But one of the customers, she alleged, placed some money in her hand and handcuffed her.

In his 25-page decision, Judge Saniel said that the prosecution established guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The court ruling was one of those handed down as part of the Supreme Court’s “Judgment Day” in Cebu, an activity that was meant to decongest jails in the province.

Deputy Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said that all the courts should have conducted an inventory before Judgment Day to determine which cases involved prisoners who can be released.

“If the accused has already served the minimum sentence, they may be released on recognizance or on a reduced bail. Our courts should take cognizance of those provisions and apply them, if applicable, to the pending cases,” said Marquez. (GMD/With KAL/Sun.Star Cebu)

 

[Methersgate]

Sorry; I mis-understood.

[Old55]

Sorry; I mis-understood.

 

I agree with you that overseas traffickers are in some cases slave traders.

[Methersgate]

 

Sorry; I mis-understood.

 

I agree with you that overseas traffickers are in some cases slave traders.

 

It is a scandal that should be stamped down on hard.

 

There is of course a spectrum between the girl who does six months as a jappayuki, chaperoned everywhere, and who does nothing more than light cigarettes and pour drinks, and the...other extreme, but if the cost of stamping out abusive sex slavery is stopping "respectable" work on "entertainers" visas the price is worth paying.