Australian Immigration Daily News

Members of the police’s Women and Children Protection Center – Visayas Field Unit (WCPC-VFU) and local police units carried out a series of entrapment and rescue operations in the province of Biliran on October 9 and 10.

The five suspects – aged 22, 23, 26, 28, and 30 – were arrested at several different locations. In total, the five victims rescued ranged in age from 14 to 17 years old.

In addition to the five rescued victims, in total four other children were removed as “at-risk” for assessment to determine if they, too, were victimized.  They include a 10-month-old, an 11-month-old, and two 2-year-olds.

These operations were the result of a case referral from the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Center (PICACC) regarding a perpetrator charged with child exploitation-related offenses in Australia.

PICACC gave the referral to the WCPC-VFU who then conducted further investigation to identify and locate local traffickers linked to the Australian perpetrator. During their investigations, WCPC-VFU learned that the suspects, four of whom are sisters, offered eight minor girls for online sexual exploitation.

Source: Police-Arrest-five-suspected-online-traffickers-in-the-Philippines-rescue-5-children.pdf