Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan (Facebook)

Local government units (LGUs) ought to create a united front against the online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) by establishing their respective community-based programs and adopting ordinances aimed at ending these despicable crimes.

Thus, said Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan, who reckoned Tuesday, Nov. 11 that the fight against OSAEC should be taken to the barangay level to further bolster joint efforts by the government and the private sector against this menace.

Yamsuan reminded LGUs that under Republic Act (RA) No.11930 or the Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) And Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation (CSAEM) Act, the sanggunians or LGU councils are mandated to pass ordinances that aim to localize the fight against perpetrators of these “abominable crimes against our children".

“We should further strengthen our efforts to put an end to this societal menace that violate the rights of children, destroy their dignity, and  leave them emotionally scarred for life. We urge our LGUs to bring our fight against the sexual abuse of children, whether online or offline, down to the community level,” said the former assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). 

Yamsuan issued the call after a graphic artist for Disney and Pixar studios, Bouhalem Bouchiba, was sentenced by a court in France to 25 years in jail for complicity in the rape of hundreds of preteen girls in the Philippines. 

Bouchiba was also found guilty of  human trafficking and viewing of child pornography online.  

According to reports, Bouchiba was convicted of paying women in the Philippines between 2012 and 2021 to rape and sexually assault girls aged between five and 10 in front of a camera while he watched via livestream and issued instructions.

“Ang mga ganitong kasuklam-suklam na krimen ay dapat na hindi pinapalagpas. Kaya naman tulad ng unang nasabi na ng DILG, pinapaalalahanan natin ang mga opisyal ng barangay na huwag na huwag na papayag na ma-settle o maayos na lamang kapag may nai-report sa kanila na  mga kasong sexual abuse sa mga bata, maging offline or online man ito,” Yamsuan said. 

(These repulsive crimes should not be tolerated. That’s why like what the DILG had said earlier, we would like to remind barangay officials that they should never allow the settlement of cases reported to them involving the sexual abuse of children, whether offline or online). 

A United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)-supported study found that 20 percent of children in the Philippines aged 12 to 17 who use the internet have experienced online sexual abuse.

“We are marking National Children’s Month this November. We should be reminded not only by this occasion, but always,  that children are vulnerable to abuse and that we should tirelessly work together to protect them,” said the solon, who filed for district representation in Parañaque City in the the May 2025 polls.

Yamsuan said barangay officials should immediately report OSAEC-related incidents to law enforcement authorities so that these could be investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law. 

He said local sanggunians can pattern their anti-OSAEC ordinances to the model and guidelines already released by the DILG last Sept. 24 through Memorandum Circular 2024-140. 

The directive, which was issued by then-DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos, covers all LGU officials; the Minister of Local Government of the  Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM);  and DILG regional, provincial, city and municipal directors and officers. 

Aside from enacting anti-OSAEC ordinances, the circular also instructs LGUs to institutionalize programs for the prevention and eradication of these crimes, as well as provide for the rehabilitation and reintegration of victims. 

The circular also encourages LGUs “to aid relevant agencies, such as the local or field offices of the Department of Justice, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of Social Welfare and Development, among others, in ensuring the implementation of the Anti-OSAEC Law through consistent collaboration and partnerships".

An evaluation done by  the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) released in April last year said it saw a spike in OSAEC-related “suspicious transaction reports (STRs)” from 204 in 2015 to an alarming 92,200 by the end of 2022. 

The AMLC also said in its report that foreign remittances associated with OSAEC-related STRs accounted for  P751.36 million or 83 percent of the aggregate value of P1.56 billion found during the time the study was done. According to the AMLC, this suggests that the majority of child pornography-related transactions in the Philippines are cross border in nature.