The President and Cybersex

The President has weighed in on the cybersex trade by ordering a crackdown. Interestingly enough,  while the President seems adamant in putting a stop to this, the law enforcement officers have found that the law is inqdequate given the recent dismissal of the case filed agains the accused in a raid in Pampanga.

I’m told that the accused in the recent Las Pinas raid was charged with a violation of the recently passed Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act — the same one used in the Pampanga case. The charge is improper because the law is clearly inapplicable. It seeks to punish the trafficking of persons and pre-supposes that the victims are held against their will.  That’s not true in the case of cybersex dens where the women voluntarily ply their trade and earn upwards of 2 million pesos a year in the process.  Without any victim to speak of, I wonder how the PNP hopes to build its case.

In the meantime, the PNP have used a charge (large scale trafficking by a syndicate) that attracts a penalty of life imprisonment. This way, the accused is not entitled to bail as a matter of right and the judge can deny bail if the “evidence of guilt” is strong. In the meantime, they remain in jail. Interestingly enough, the girls were also arrested but perhaps the authorities realized that it would be inconsistent to arrest the “victims” of human trafficking, they were released to the social welfare department on their own recognizance where it is believed one or more of them will be coaxed into becoming a state witness against the owners. So long as none of them perjure themselves, the chances of a conviction are almost nil.

Maybe I should make myself clear at this point.  While I believe that the business is immoral and exploitative, I don’t see why it’s criminal (except when it involves minors).  But I also believe that before we jump in and declare that a law be passed, the matter should be studied more closely.

See my earlier post on this matter.