BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – Four women and the owner of the boarding house which served as a cybersex den in Lapuz district were charged before the City Prosecutor’s Office here.
Boarding house owner Helen Delotavo and the four cybersex performers, including a16-year old minor, were charged with violating the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
Delotavo yesterday posted a bail bond of P60,000, said Supt. Peter Naboye, director of the Regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (RCIDU).
On the other hand, the cybersex “performers” have yet to post a court-recommended bail bond of P120, 000 each.
They are currently at a detention facility for women at the Molo police station.
The Cybercrime Prevention Act defines cybersex as “the willful engagement, maintenance, control, or operation, directly or indirectly, of any lascivious exhibition of sexual organs or sexual activity, with the aid of a computer system, for favor or consideration.”
The RCIDU, meanwhile, turned over the 16-year old minor suspect to the Department of Social Welfare and Development Region 6.
RCIDU operatives raided Delotavo’s boarding house in Brgy. Sinikway, Lapuz late afternoon of July 10.
They caught the16-year-old wearing nothing but a panty and a bra and performing before a laptop.
The policemen recovered four laptops, camera tripods and dildos.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Western Visayas said the operator of the cybersex den could be held liable for violating women’s rights and several other laws.
According to Atty. Jonnie Dabuco, attorney V of CHR Region 6, the other charges could be for violation of Republic Act 7610 (Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act) and the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996, because one of the cybersex performers was a minor.
The minor agreed to perform lewd acts before foreign clients via the Internet because she wanted to finish her studies, according to social worker Ann Rapunzel Endencia of the Iloilo City Social Welfare and Development Office’s Crisis Intervention Unit.
She is currently studying in a computer college here, the minor told Endencia.
From what she had gathered, Endencia said the minor came from a broken family. Her mother is working in Saudi Arabia while her father is currently residing in Dumarao, Capiz./PN
