Tourists who go to Cebu expect tropical-style fun with warm sands, cool ocean waters and the occasional eye candy when guys and gals walk around in bikinis.
Unfortunately, these Korean tourists are facing some serious jail time after they had some illegal fun. The Korean tourists allegedly engaged in sexual relations with young Cebuanas aged 19 - 21 years old. These Cebuana ladies were working for a Korean-owned escort service group.
According to the report by Cebu Daily News, the internet-based escort service provided ‘sex tour packages’ for paying foreign customers for a fee of P250,000 per tourist. This paid service is a human trafficking offense in the Philippines.
This illegal business was being run by a group of three Koreans and their Filipina partner.
The Korean nationals arrested by the authorities were aged between 40 to 50 years old. The released names of the suspects were as follows: “Jongnam Ham, Munsu Lee, Joontae Kim, Dongkil Kim, Jong In Han, Hosik Park, Jae Gyu Kim, Namgyun Shin and Byeonghae Park.”
Last Friday, the tourists were caught by the authorities with their hired Cebuana escorts at a beachfront hotel in Barangay Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City at 1PM.
The suspects did not resist arrest nor did they release any statements concerning their alleged crime.
In an interview the following day, NBI-7 special investigator Arnel Pura released this statement: “The suspects are part of what we called sex tourism which preys on Cebuanas. We received an information about their operations so we hatched a plan to arrest them.”
The suspects will be charged with violating Section 11 of Republic Act 10364 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012. This prohibits anyone from “engaging the services of a trafficked person.” The offense is bailable.
According to Pura the victims were residents of both Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu City, and were lured to take part in the sex tours for P2,000 per day. The NBI says they were informed of the internet advertisements targeted at Korean men of this Cebu-based sex tourism. On the site, Filipina partners are chosen by tourists from a photo gallery.
“There’s actually a private website which is exclusive for Koreans. The website serves as the platform from which the transactions are being carried out such as payments, plane tickets, accommodation, sites to be visited and other related concerns,” Pura stated.
Based on the investigation by the NBI, three other Korean nationals identified as ‘Choi’, ‘Andy’ and ‘Kim’ as well as their local contact Maribeth Bontog were the primary movers of this business. Supposedly Choi serves as the leader of this sex trafficking group while Bontog recruits and provides women for a fee.
All four suspects remain at large and will be facing qualified trafficking charges.
If found guilty, each of the nine Korean tourists could potentially face a prison term of six to 12 years.
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Source: TNP , Cebudailynews
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