‘My Parents Learned Porn from Neighbor’

By Ador Vincent Mayol
Cebu Daily News

8:05 am | Saturday, June 4th, 2011

DO WE CONSIDER PORNOGRAPHY PATHOLOGICAL OR NOT?


The married couple who was arrested for allegedly using their children for cyber pornography in barangay Ibabao, Cordova town, learned about the trade from a neighbor.

So said their eldest son who executed a sworn affidavit to the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) against them yesterday.

The 15-year-old boy was assisted by a psychologist and a social worker in executing the affidavit.

“It is already quite known in the community that other families area also doing these webcam shows from my conversation with my friends and neighbors. In fact, one of my neighbors taught my parents to do these webcam shows to earn money,” he said.

The boy, along with four underage siblings and a female cousin, are now under the custody of the Provincial Women’s Commission.

The boy said he saw his parents order his younger sisters to perform lewd acts against their will.

Based on an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7), the couple maintained two Yahoo e-mail accounts to lure online clients.

The man and his spouse, who is six months pregnant, are detained at the NBI-7 stockade.

The eldest son recounted how he first witnessed a “webcam” show involving his sisters two years ago.

He said he entered his parents’ room to get a T-shirt and saw his three sisters stripping down in front of a web camera.

“My mother was chatting over the Internet with some foreigners who were viewing them,” said the affidavit obtained by Cebu Daily News.

The boy was at home when NBI agents arrested his parents last Wednesday and rescued the children.

He said his mother and his three siblings and a female cousin were chatting with foreigners over the Internet.

The other children were nude and performed lewd actions in front of the web camera for a fee.

“This is not the first time that my mother and my father told my sisters and even my (13-year-old) brother to strip nude and perform lewd actions in front of foreigners,” he said.

After watching this, the boy said he no longer questioned his parents because he saw them buy groceries and other needs of the house, and understood that was how they earned money even though they were jobless.

He said his parents started to engage in cyber pornography two years ago.

He said his sisters would be told to perform lewd shows in front of the web camera “almost thrice a week.”

“I talked to my sisters, pitied them and urged them to stop but they told me that although they did not like to do these shows, they were forced to do it by my parents since this is the only way for them to earn money.”

So far, only the eldest son issued an affidavit against his parents who face charges of violating Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 and qualified trafficking.

They were also accused of violating Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law.

The charges will be elevated before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Lapu-Lapu City on Monday.


WHAT MAY BE THE EFFECT OF PORNOGRAPHY ALONE ON THE INDIVIDUAL?

The following report from this link of GMA Report may provide a prognosis: "GIRL, 9, MISSING FOR 12 DAYS, FOUND DEAD IN CAVITA" by Gian C. Geronimo, GMA NEWS, 2013 Jan 11, 15:23 A 9-year-old girl who went missing on Christmas Day last year was found dead last Saturday, Jan. 5, in Dasmariñas City in Cavite province. Police said she was raped by four men, one of them a minor, who have been taken into custody. The body of rape victim Zosimae Magluyan was found...  


THE CAUSE OF SEXUAL DRIVE

This mindset of having "Safe and satisfying sex", and "pleasurable sex" as contained in the Reproductive Health Law recently passed in the Philippines, is not helping at all in checking such pathological behaviours.  It only reinforces the mindset that the desires of the flesh is at the center of our drive while love of the one who created us and our neighbour is merely along the peripheral. 

Huge Stash of Corals, Shells Found in Zambo Warehouses

By Julie S. Alipala
Inquirer Mindanao

6:31 pm | Saturday, June 4th, 2011

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Workers arrange rare black corals and endangered green sea turtles as they are presented to media in Manila on May 30. AP

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—Two days of inspections of warehouses and buying stations of a Zamboanga-based trading company have yielded such a large stash of protected corals, shells and other marine species that two 20-foot container vans were not enough to hold them, the head of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said here Saturday.

BFAR Director Asis Perez said the authorities discovered tons of corals and shells in one warehouse they inspected Saturday in the village of San Roque .

“We saw a still undetermined, huge volume (of corals and shells), much bigger than what were seized in Manila,” he told the Inquirer.

Asked to give an estimate, he said the shells and corals in that particular warehouse of the Li and Lim Trading would not fit in two 20-foot container vans. “I guess more than that and we need to evaluate how large this stash is,” Perez added.

He said a team of experts was expected in Zamboanga “to help us identify, determine and categorize the type of species found at one of the warehouses.”

“We have conducted a thorough search,” he said. “There’s indication of illegal items, we can see illegal items even if we don’t open the boxes, and in the second premises, shells are in boxes and sealed and there were several cuts of still undetermined items,” Perez said.

Rosella Contreras, head of the BFAR’s Fish Inspection and Quarantine Services in Western Mindanao, said among the items they saw inside one of the warehouses were porcelain clams or Hippopus porcellanus, a protected species harvesting of which is banned.

Ahadulla Sajili, BFAR Western Mindanao director, said the fact-finding team has inspected a total of three warehouses since Friday.

Sajili said they also inspected a warehouse operated by Uan Huat Trading, which he said is owned by Joe Pring, also known as Joe Ping, whom he identified as Taiwanese and the husband of Olivia Li and Lim Trading who has made herself scarce in the wake of the seizure in Manila late last months of two container vans filled with black corals and stuffed marine turtles.

In 2007, the authorities also seized protected marine species from Uan Uat’s warehouse and Pring was charged with violating the country’s fisheries laws. The case is still pending.

Chief Superintendent Elpidio de Asis, chief of the Western Mindanao police, said Pring personally welcomed the fact-finding team and allowed it to conduct the inspection of his warehouse.

Meanwhile, Lim found a defender in De Asis.

Citing the permit obtained by Li from the city’s business licensing office, De Asis said the businesswoman was operating a legitimate business.

“This does not look to me like smuggling. Some people were trying to make money and they did not know they were gathering banned marine products,” he said.

But BFAR’s Perez disagreed, saying that a highly organized syndicate could be behind the smuggling of protected corals and shells from this city.

“So many people were involved. People who are gathering and selling, consolidating… there are people making sure it’s transported and people who hide their real identities like the consignee of the one shipped and seized in Metro Manila,” he said.

Perez said, “There’s really a pattern. In other words it’s a pretty well thought of operation, it’s not something you do by impulse, well thought process, well planned, by all indications it’s a syndicated crime.”

Hadji Alano Alihuddin, provincial fisheries officer of Basilan also backed Perez’s statement.

He said village officials in his province could testify that those gathering corals there were escorted by heavily armed men.

But De Asis again rejected the idea of syndicated crime, saying the gathering and selling of corals have become a cottage industry for some fishermen in the Western Mindanao area.

In a related development, the Bureau of Customs said during a meeting with BFAR and other government officials here Friday that it could not possibly detect illegal items shipped out of the port here to other parts of the country.

The BOC said it inspects only cargoes bound for foreign destinations and not inter-island shipments, and pointed to the Philippine Ports Authority as the responsible agency. But PPA officials also washed their hands, saying it was the job of the BOC.

Officials of the Maritime Industry Authority said shipping companies should have also known they were transporting contraband. They said it was unlikely for shipping companies to just allow cargoes without knowing what they were.

Owners of Company in Coral Smuggling Nowhere to be Found

By Julie S. Alipala

Inquirer Mindanao

6:37 pm | Friday, June 3rd, 2011

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Customs officers show to photographers rare black corals as they are presented to media in Manila on Monday. AP

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—The owners of the company reportedly behind the seized illegal shipment of corals and other marine species worth about P35 have made themselves scarce.

A worker for Olivia Li of Li and Lim Trading on Magay Road here told the Inquirer that she and her husband left for Manila last week.

The worker, who refused to give his name, said they had no idea what their employers were doing in Manila or when they were coming back.

Ahadulla Sajili, director of the Western Mindanao office of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, (BFAR), said they have been trying to locate Li, “but no one is providing us information of her whereabouts or that of her husband.”

A source who asked not to be named told the Inquirer that the Lis may have been trying to get out of the country if they have not done so yet.

Elmer Apolinario, deputy city administrator, said he got information that the Lis were actually Taiwanese.

Asis Perez, national director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said charges for violation of the Fisheries Code were filed against Li and several others on Friday. He said Li and her associates could also face charges of smuggling.

On Friday, Western Mindanao police director Chief Superintendent Elpidio de Asis ordered the city police to immediately secure Li’s warehouse and buying station here.

“We are under instruction to secure and prevent any possible entry or exit of any marine products,” said Senior Supt. Edwin De Ocampo, acting city police chief.

He said policemen were deployed to guard Yacom Bldg. in Barangay San Roque and Li’s office on Magay Road.

Demetrio Escoto, BFAR legal officer, said that aside from Li, several other persons have been charged for violating the fisheries laws.

They included Exequiel D. Navarro, listed in the shipment’s manifest and bill of lading as the consignee of the seized marine items; Kim L. Atillano, owner of the Zamboanga-based JKA Transport System, the alleged cargo forwarder; and an Ireneo Penuliar.

De Ocampo said despite the cases filed against those allegedly behind the illegal trade in marine species, there had been no instruction for them to search or seize anything from either Li’s warehouse or office.

Apolinario said Li and Lim Trading has a permit to operate and is engaged in “exporting seashells.”

Meanwhile, another source who was trying to help the Inquirer get as much information on Li and Lim Trading, said Friday he had warned against asking too much about the smuggling activities.

The source said that among those who warned him were from the Chinese-Filipino community here.

“I’ve been asking around about this (company) but everybody was mum and all of them told me to go slow as it could be dangerous, that a big syndicate could be behind this (smuggling),” the source said.

The existence of a syndicate in the illicit marine trade was earlier brought to the Inquirer’s attention by Rosella Contreras of the BFAR’s Fish Inspection and Quarantine Services here.

Contreras said the smuggling of corals and other marine species had been going on since 2008 without any meaningful seizures or arrests made.

“Smuggling is a non-stop activity at the Zamboanga City Port. Syndicates abound,” she said.

Contreras said that as much as the BFAR wanted to inspect cargoes to ensure they did not include protected marine species, they could barely move inside the port.

“If we receive positive reports, we immediately act on them. But sometimes, armed men would confront us. We could only take notes and make reports,” she said, without saying who the armed men were.

Contreras said while there had been seizures in the past, no one actually went to jail for smuggling protected marine species.

“There were several apprehensions but they could easily get away after paying certain dues,” she said.

During a meeting with local and other government officials, Asis said he was informed that the stuffed turtles and other species confiscated in Manila last week had come from waters around Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

“These were being collected by deep sea diving and the use of air compressors and were mostly done by ordinary fishermen, who were not so aware of the laws,” he said.

Sajili said buyers of marine species go around these provinces and tell fishermen what types of corals they need.

The collected marine items are then shipped to the buyers through small wharfs and ports, Perez said.

Mayor Celso Lobregat said the city has about 28 mini-ports and wharves and most are not licensed.

Black corals , Crime , Environment , Smuggling , wildlife trade