Two persons have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Pateros regional trial court (RTC) in Rizal for online sexual trafficking of children (OSEC), the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) said on Tuesday, Feb. 22.
In a statement, IACAT said: “The Regional Trial Court Branch 262 Pateros Station sentenced one male and one female traffickers to life imprisonment for sexually exploiting children in the Philippines.”
Department of Justice (DOJ) Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay Villar, the undersecretary-in-charge of IACAT, identified those convicted as Victor Mendoza Amarillo and Marjorie Cristle Amarillo Imson.
A copy of the RTC decision which IACAT said was handed down last Feb. 15 was not available. The IACAT statement did not name the judge who handed down the decision.
IACAT said the two convicts were also “ordered to pay a fine of P4 million, and directed to pay moral damages to each of the victims amounting to P500,000.”
It said the two convicts were found guilty of two counts of qualified trafficking in persons under Republic Act No. 10364, the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012, in relation to RA 9208, the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003; and two counts of child pornography in violation of RA 9775, the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2012, in relation to RA 10175, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
“This conviction originated from a successful operation by the National Bureau of Investigation Anti-Human Trafficking in Person Division (NBI-AHTRAD) with the assistance of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT),” it said.
It said the NBI operation which took place on March 6, 2015 also resulted in the rescue of two girls, seven and 17 years old.
“Thanks to the collaboration of NBI AHTRAD, IACAT, DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), IJM (International Justice Mission), PNP-WCPC (Philippine National Police-Women Children Protection Center), Office of Cybercrime, Office of the State Counsel, and the United States Homeland Security Investigations, the two traffickers were held accountable for their actions and two survivors are seeing justice being served in the Philippines,” IACAT also said.