The authorities rescued 11 girls mostly minors from the syndicate who are used to escort foreign casino players in an entrapment operation of NBI.
The Netizens were shocked after knowing that the members of the syndicates are famous on Facebook.
The names of the suspects are Hilary Acosta Y. Santos also known as Violet Sy on Facebook and her partner Joey Jalgalado.
Violet Sy already has 70,000 followers on Facebook while his partner who believes leading the syndicate doesn’t have any followers, but they believe that Joey is the one who connects with the customers who wants a private service from their victims.
Sy and Jalgalado’s Facebook accounts are now attacking by the Netizens for luring many minors to their illegal business.
Fans of Violet shows their disappointment via social media, they can’t believe that their idol is a human trafficker and victimizing her friends on Facebook.
The syndicate are selling their victims to the foreigners for 15,000-30,000 pesos.
The two denied the accusation against them and they said that the 11 girls that rescued is just staying in their condo unit and not doing illegal activities.
If proven, the two are qualified to face the consequences for human trafficking.
Penalties for trafficking acts
According to the “Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012″., the three categories of trafficking acts carry the following penalties:
- for acts of trafficking: 20 years of imprisonment and a fine of P1 million to P2 million;
- for promotion the illegal activity: imprisonment for 15 years and a fine of P500,000 to P1 million, and
- for qualified trafficking: penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of P2 million to P5 million.
Netizens believe that some people are really tempted to do illegal activities especially to some famous personality on social media that already influenced by other people’s wealth.
“Siguro naiingit sila sa mga nakikita nila sa social media na yung iba naka cellphone na maganda tapos sila hindi, kaya minsan kumakapit sila sa patalim para makuha yung gusto nila” One of the Netizen said to our source.
The authorities also urged the Netizens to be careful if someone offered you a job especially when it promised you a big amount of money every month.
