GABALDON, Nueva
Ecija – A 23-year-old mother of three has escaped from the clutches of a
suspected sex-trafficking syndicate in Surigao Islands which has reportedly been
recruiting young women for supposed high-paying jobs only to end up as
entertainers and prostitutes.
Socorro (not her real name) managed to
sneak out of a brothel in Surigao Wednesday back into the waiting arms of her
grieving mother Veronica Lacandoza of Barangay Calabasa in this town. She and a
dozen others have been forced into white slavery in a restaurant used as fronts
for prostitution in Surigao.
The woman, a high school drop-out, showed
contusions and bruises in both arms reportedly after she was repeatedly beaten
up by three burly bouncers of the restaurant which, she said, was owned by a
Japanese national. It was her punishment for refusing to entertain customers,
mostly foreigners in the faraway island.
Lacandoza told reporters that her daughter’s
misfortunes started when the latter applied for a job as a waitress in San
Pedro, Laguna last October 22. The victim said she was lured by the promise of
a high salary amounting to P150 per hour. She identified her employer as a
certain Santos.
“I got interested in the job because
it was my way of survival and it would ensure food for my family,” the dusky victim,
who has three children aged six, five and three, said.
The victim has long been estranged
from her husband who works as a jeepney conductor in the town. They have not
seen each other for nine months.
The victim added that after a week in
her job, she and her two other companions were herded into a van by the
employer who said they are going to haul some stuff to be brought to their
place of work. While on their way, they fell asleep.
She said that when they woke up, they
found themselves in the company of 11 other women. They were later told by
their companions that they were in a mountain island in Surigao. “All you could
see outside were mountains,” she said.
The woman said that in Surigao, they
were treated like prisoners as they were not allowed to go outside.
They
were also deprived of enough food to eat, making them weak. “Sometimes, we get
to eat twice a day and there were times when we ate only once a day,” she said.
She said they were forced to entertain
customers, most of whom were Indian nationals.
The woman said they may have been
drugged by their “Mama Sang” who injected fluids into their body, causing them
to lose consciousness. Their employer was described as an elderly, ugly
long-haired and burly lady.
“For about four times a week, I got
dizzy,” she said, recalling that the drugs were injected during the night. She
said at times, they were made to sniff something which emits a fragrant then a
putrid smell.
She said that on a number of
occasions, she would refuse to entertain customers and in the process, she
would be mauled by the bouncers who would only let up when she has lost
consciousness.
The woman said that her employer’s
sister, identified only as Jo, took pity on her and her two other companions
and plotted her escape.
On
January 7 at around 3:30 pm, Jo managed to persuade the employer to allow the
woman and her two other companions to go out on the pretext that customers are supposedly
waiting for them. “Mama Sang allowed Jo to accompany us because she thought we
won’t be allowed to escape. Jo was very much trusted,” the victim said.
Outside,
they boarded the trip bound for Matlog, Sorsogon . There, they transferred to
another ferry which took them to Manila, using the fare sent to her by her
mother.
Ben
dela Cruz, one of Lacandoza’s advisers who helped fetched the victim in Manila
and back to their home in Calabasa,
called on authorities to investigate and track down the syndicate which
has been victimizing unsuspecting women and feeding them to sex-starved
customers.
He
advised women job-seekers to be wary of advertisements posted in public places
promising of high-paying jobs which actually were a modus operandi to lure them
and later turn them into sex workers in far-flung places.
“At first, padadamahin lang sila (they would be entrapped) and
afterwards, they would be turned into GROs for the flesh trade,” he said. –
Manny Galvez
