The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) announced on Monday the rescue of 10 minor victims and the arrest of two Filipinas for suspected child exploitation in Concepcion, Tarlac.
In a press briefing, NBI Director Jaime Santiago revealed that it is connected with the arrest of Swedish national and alleged child-sexual offender Heinz Henry Andreas Berglund in April.
“Berglund’s contacts, it turned out, were the children’s parents and aunt. On June 10, we conducted an operation where we rescued 10 children, 7 of whom were boys and 3 were girls. Their ages ranged from 3 months old up to 16 years old, they were minors,” Santiago said in Filipino.
He underscored the importance of the cooperation of foreign counterparts to conduct arrests stressing that child exploitation is a global concern.
The clients abroad are being directly offered services through the dark web, according to him.
The operation resulted in the arrest of the two adult female subjects on charges related to the entrapment and possession of prohibited materials in violation of laws against the abuse of children and trafficking of individuals.
Santiago recognized the efforts of the joint enforcement team composed of the NBI–Violence Against Women and Children Division (VAWCD), Department of Justice – Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (DOJ-IACAT), and Destiny Rescue Philippines (NGO), among others.
For her part, VAWCD chief Yehlen Agus revealed that Berglund intentionally traveled to the country to exploit children, noting that the two Filipinas were his contact.
“We arrested them based on the warrant issued by the Swedish government and the Red Notice of the Interpol. Through follow-up investigations, we were able to reach the houses where the subjects were living as well as the children being exploited by the siblings,” she said.
She added the suspects were conducting online exploitations of children and intended to do a hands-on exploitation, but were prevented by the NBI.
Upon investigation, Berglund is sending P200 up to P4,000 to the victims depending on the services given such as live shows.
