Kalibo ‘trafficking victims’ rescued

By BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

KALIBO, Aklan — Six female entertainers, one of whom believed to be a minor, allegedly being trafficked in a videoke bar here were rescued by the local police during an entrapment operation.

The raid of Lucky 7 Videoke Bar and Massage Parlor on Toting Reyes Street, Barangay Andagao here also led to the arrest of the bar’s floor manager.

Police also took with them the establishment’s security guard and two minor male waiters.

Operatives swooped down on the bar after a police asset handed a P1,500 marked money in exchange for the entertainers’ sexual service.

The rescued women were recruited from Bacolod City, Quezon City and Bicol province, said Senior Police Officer 1 Babylyn Daylusan, investigator for the Women and Children Protection Desk here.

A social worker estimated the alleged minor to be about 16 or 17 years old, but Daylusan said her age was yet to be verified with the National Statistics Office.

Police said they have been monitoring the videoke bar on suspicion that it was trafficking women and girls.

The operation came more than a week after 35 alleged trafficking victims were rescued from videoke bars in Boracay.

Thirty-eight-year old Geraldine Sabucido alias “Venus,” the floor manager, was arrested. A native of Bacolod City, she temporarily resides in Barangay Andagao here.

Sabucido was detained in the municipal police station. She is facing charges for violation of the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012.

Personnel of Aklan Public Safety Company, Provincial Intelligence Branch and Kalibo police station, in coordination with the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO), staged the raid at about 11:10 p.m. Saturday.

A man supposedly running the bar was out of town at the time of the raid.

All rescued women were turned over to MSWDO’s Women’s Center. It was learned that one of them is seven months pregnant.

The two male waiters — both aged 16 years old and from Sitio Bambang, Barangay Calizo, Balete town — were turned over by social welfare workers to their parents after a counseling session on Sunday.

One of them said he had been working in the bar for only three weeks for a P2,000 monthly salary.

The security guard, 42-year-old Rowel Arboleda of Barangay Aranas, Balete, was also released by police on Sunday. Arboleda was under the Kislap security agency. (Aklan Forum Journal/PN)