Child Porn

I recently participated in a raid in Quiapo against child pornography. We went with the Optical Media Board and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police.

The OMB operative said that the operation was based on the complaint by the father of a highscool girl recorded on video while she was being raped by her classmates- the dvd of which was being sold in the market. Tsk!

The child’s father bought a copy of the dvd in aurora, quezon city. On which ground he also filed a complaint before a court in Molino, Cavite. (Don’t know the whereabouts of the case) A copy of the DVD was brought to the OMB. OMB got information that the same dvd was also being sold in Quiapo- thus, the raid.

This is the second raid that we participated in. First was at the Makati Cinema Square where we discovered child pornographic materials displayed in the stalls along with other fake DVDs. The titles of the DVDs range from “teen sex” to “child molestation.” I really want to vomit when I saw the cover of the DVDs- children as young as two years old being portrayed as sex objects, molested! Where are the parents of those kids! Ano na ba ang nangyayari sa mundo? Grabe!

This is not a PR for my boss but I am really thankful that she’s bent on pushing for the passage of her pet bill. The Anti-Child Pornography Bill, filed under Committee Report Number 55 in the Upper House is now at the period of amendments. We hope to have it passed on second reading before the end of the month and on third reading hopefully before Congress recess in October.

Since the bill is moving faster in the Senate, we are conducting parallel activities to raise the people’s level of awareness on the importance of passing the bill- to pressure the house to catch up. We are touring campuses conducting forums. We tied up with UNICEF and other concerned sectors including the church, NGOs, local government units, schools and other government agencies to unify our efforts in this campaign.

The bill was intended to fill the gap in existing laws relating to child pornography. There was no specific law criminalizing possession of child pornographic materials and its trade via the internet and other media that caused a lot of cases on child pornography to be dismissed. It is a cause of deep concern as Sexual exploitation of children has become a multi-billion dollar industry. The Philippines is the second largest exporter of child pornography! It is a sixty billion dollar industry in the world.

We confiscated quite a number of materials. Isang jeep! I didn’t really see if all were child pornography. I would like to convince myself that the materials will not be sold anymore- that’s a few thousand copies of those child porn materials pulled out of the market. That was a dent! (haha)

Too bad, we did not manage to get in the buildings where the operative admitted the materials were being reproduced. Tsk. Harsh kasi, kakatakot ang lugar. Nagkaputukan pa kamo.

Hay, hay, hay! The perils of my job. Mabuti na lang may insurance ako.