BACOLOD CITY (MindaNews / 31 Oct) — To be able to counter the online sexual abuse of Filipino children, partnership with law enforcers abroad is more important now than ever, according to a prosecutor who had direct involvement in sending an Australian child sex offender to prison.

Cagayan de Oro City Prosecutor Charisse A. Galarrita-Bitoon said during the “Reclaiming Lives: Breaking the Human Trafficking Cycle” forum here last month organized by the US Embassy that the Philippines has mutual legal assistance treaties with nine countries: United States, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and China.

“Due to the increasingly transnational nature of crimes, [mutual legal assistance] is critical to criminal investigations and proceedings both in the Philippines and abroad,” Bitoon said.

She cited the case of Peter Gerald Scully, who is now serving life imprisonment with cases of human trafficking, rape by sexual assault of children, and murder.

Bitoon said that the Interpol was tracking the whereabouts of Scully. “They conducted a manhunt of this notorious pedophile who avoided the reach of the law” who was lying low in Bukidnon, she pointed out.

The Australian Federal Police, she said, coordinated with the National Bureau of Investigation, looking for Scully’s 15 filming locations, “compar[ing] floor tiles, windows or the background found in the video to that of the actual place of incident.”

Bitoon said the collaborating investigators were able to confirm that one of the locations was in the Philippines when one of the victims of his notorious film “Daisy’s Destruction,” of young girls (including an infant) who were tortured and sexually abused, blurted “Agay!” (Ouch!)

The manhunt narrowed down in Malaybalay City, where Scully and his local partner were arrested.

Bitoon was among those who prosecuted the case on the abduction and sexual abuse of two cousins, a case that lasted years in the court.

Another case cited by the prosecutor was that of Eul Vincent Rodriguez, who was being hunted by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because of his human trafficking engagement through Facebook, Skype, and other online platforms.

The ICE, Bitoon said, provided the Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force of Region 7 details about Rodriguez’s Skype account.

Rodriguez was eventually arrested in an entrapment operation, wherein a policeman acting as customer communicated with the trafficker, and all their online correspondence recorded.

It became a landmark case when the Supreme Court ruled that videos and chat logs, which were Rodriguez’s methods in reaching out to customers, often foreigners, were admissible as evidence in court.

Another speaker in the anti-trafficking forum also cited the importance of international collaboration, more so because demand usually comes from affluent countries.

“There are two perpetrators in the crime of online sexual exploitation of children …. You have the local trafficker in the Philippines and the offender from abroad,” noted Rebelander S. Basilan, who leads the campaigns and local media engagement of the International Justice Mission Philippines (IJM Philippines).

“It’s encouraging that the Philippines actually has a really strong model of global law enforcement collaboration,” he added.

Basilan said his organization has worked with the Australian Federal Police, the Netherlands Police, and the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom.

“They are very actively involved in capturing sex offenders in their countries, who are fueling the demand for child sexual abuse material,” he noted.

He pointed out that help from international law enforcement is important because Filipinos have tendency not to report crimes happening in the community. “We want people in the communities to break the culture of silence,” Basilan said.

US Ambassador MaryKay Carlson, in her recorded message to the forum participants, expressed her government’s commitment in putting an end to “the online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.”

“The United States is proud to partner with the Philippines to protect vulnerable people through constant collaboration between our agencies, including the Bureau of Immigration, the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Interagency Council Against Trafficking,” she said. (Bobby Timonera / MindaNews)