2 teenage human trafficking victims rescued
Senior Supt. Angelito Casimiro, Zamboanga City police director, said the victims were rescued at around 1:45 p.m. after a relative of one of the two victims called the Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO) and sought assistance to rescue her niece at the pension house.
Casimiro withheld the identities of the rescued victims except to say they are female teeners, aged 17 and 19.[]
He said the victims were recruited in Bulacan by a certain Epa to work in Malaysia.
He said the two teenagers had been staying for the past six days at the pension house when they were rescued.
He said the victims had not met the recruiter, who just called and sent them text messages, since they arrived here.
He said the victims also informed the police that they have two other companions from Bulacan who left last April 9 for Tawi-Tawi.
The recued teenage victims were placed under the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
The rescue of the two teenage victims came six days after the multi-agency Sea-Based Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force (SABATTF) rescued four illegal recruitment victims and arrested two suspected illegal recruiters in this city.[]
