ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/06 August) – Police operatives backed by military intelligence personnel arrested a suspected illegal recruiter in an entrapment operation Thursday afternoon,
Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo, Zamboanga City police director, said.
De Ocampo said the suspect, Corazon Manuel, a resident of Masuhud Drive in Tumaga, was arrested in Barangay Tumaga, north of this city.
Prior to her arrest, De Ocampo said military intelligence agents informed his office about a suspected illegal recruiter recruiting young women to work as bar girls in Malaysia.
Personnel from the Women and Children Protection Desk (WCPD) of the local police headquarters discussed plans together with the military intelligence operatives and decided to launch an entrapment operation, he said.
He said the group proceeded to Manuel’s residence with a policewoman from the WCPD and two other female companions who pretended to be applicants and set up the entrapment operation that resulted to the suspect’s arrest.
The suspect was detained after she was taken Friday for inquest proceedings before the City Prosecutor’s Office, he said.
Manuel was the second suspected illegal recruiter arrested this week by the police in this city.
First to be arrested was Edrin Palomania, 42, of 395, Zone IV, Barangay Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.
The WCPD personnel backed by members of the Sea-Based Anti-Trafficking Task Force (SBATTF) arrested Palomania last Monday in a rented house in Villa Sta. Maria, Barangay Sta. Maria, north of this city.
Seventeen victims of illegal recruitment, all of them women and all from Luzon, were rescued when they arrested the Palomania.
Some of the them were to be sent to Malaysia, the rest in Lebanon. (MindaNews)