Police Raid Motel, Arrest 8 Sex Workers In Davao City

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / June 20, 2008) – Police arrested eight women accused of prostitution in Davao City in Mindanao Island, south of the Philippines.

The women were rounded up Thursday after policemen raided a budget hotel in Agdao district. The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said the raid was part of the government campaign codenamed “Oplan Nena, which is aimed at curbing prostitution in Mindanao.

But many of those arrested said poverty and lack of descent job opportunities drove them into prostitution, which is illegal in the Philippines. (Romy Bwaga)

6 Wounded In Sulu Blast

SULU, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 02, 2008) – A homemade bomb explosion ripped through a bar near a military base in the largely Muslim province of Sulu in southern Philippines, wounding 6 people, officials said on Sunday.

Officials said bomb experts were investigating the type of explosive used in the attack late Sunday at the bar owned by a retired soldier in the village of Busbus just within meters of a military base in Jolo town. The blast damaged the bar’s walls and injured four women and two army intelligence agents.

“Six people are wounded in the blast, four women and two soldiers and we are still investigating the explosion,” Army Major Roel Ebreo, spokesman for the anti-terror Joint Task Force Comet told the Mindanao Examiner.

He said the victims were rushed to a military hospital in Jolo where Filipino and US military doctors treated their wounds, but their conditions remain unknown. A few hundred US troops are deployed in Sulu to help local soldiers defeat terrorism.

No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, but previous attacks on bars had been largely blamed by authorities to the Abu Sayyaf group tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya terrorists.

“We are determining what type of explosive was used and who is behind this blast,” Sulu police chief Julasirim Kasim said in a separate interview.

The motive of the attack was unknown and police put a tighter security in the area, but several bars outside the base had been bombed by Abu Sayyaf militants that killed and wounded dozens of soldiers and prostitute over the past years.

And despite of the attacks, the number of bars outside the base has also grown through the years, catering to mostly Christian soldiers deployed on the province of more than half a million Muslims. The selling of alcohol and prostitution is strictly prohibited in Sulu.

In February 2006, Abu Sayyaf militants detonated a bomb at a bar outside the base, killing 3 people and wounded more than two dozen others. A month later, the Abu Sayyaf bomb a cooperative store in Jolo town and killing 9 people and wounding more than 20 more. (With a report from Nickee Butlangan)

Woman Gets 20 Years For Pimping Teener In South RP

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 30 Mar) – A Philippine court convicted a woman for pimping a teenager in Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao.

Judge Wenceslao Ibabao sentenced Lucita Magnifico to 20 years in prison after finding her guilty of the violating the country’s Child Abuse Law.

Magnifico, a street hawker, had offered the 17-year old victim to her clients in exchange for money in various occasions in 2005.

The teenager testified against the woman that prostitutes call Ate Luz and told the court that she was offered to different men who wanted to have sexual favors in exchange for some money.

She said the woman paid her some money as commission for the sex, but she later sought the help of the police and filed charges against Magnifico.

Prostitution is rampant in southern Philippines. (Romy Bwaga)