4-year-old found in Dumaguete ‘sex den’

By Eugene Y. Adiong, Manila Times, 2 May 2020

BACOLOD CITY: A four-year-old girl was found by police after raiding a house that allegedly serves as a cybersex den in Barangay Candau-ay, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental on Wednesday.

The police arrested a Norwegian and his Filipina girlfriend, who were at the house at the time, for alleged human trafficking.

Police Lt. Col. Ariel Hueca, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)-Negros Oriental, have identified the suspects as Ronny Bratlistuen, 42, and his partner Jessebelle Cometa, 22.

CIDG operatives in coordination with the local police and the Women and Children Protection Desk swooped down on the house rented by the couple on a complaint from a rescued victim. The raid was authorized by a search warrant.

Hueca said a 27-year-old complainant reported to the Dumaguete City Police Station on April 26 about their alleged cybersex operations.

The police station then endorsed the complaint to the CIDG, which initiated a case-build up before the raid.

Police rescued the complainant and two other victims aged 23 and 36 in four separate rooms inside the house The four-year-old child was found in one of the four rooms.

Recovered from the couple’s residence were objects used for sexual stimulation, six laptops, three passports, notebooks, various documents and a desktop computer allegedly used for the cybersex operations.

Bratlistuen and Cometa have been allegedly engaging in the illegal activity for three years now in various municipalities in the province, Hueca said.

Then they stayed in Dumaguete City, where they operate for about a year, he added.
According to Hueca, the complainant reported the couple’s activities to the police because she could not take it any more.

The complainant said she was offered by Cometa, her friend, a job where she can earn P10,000 a week.

“But when she started working, she was surprised that she was only given P300 per week and was allegedly parading her naked body and do sexual stimulation to their foreign clients online,” Hueca said.

The complainant also alleged that they were forced to use shabu before their
“performance,” although no illegal drugs were seized during the operation except for a lighter and a strip of aluminum foil.

Hueca said they are not yet sure if there were other female victims in the house since only the four of them were there during the raid.

He said they are still uncertain if the child is directly involved in the alleged cybersex activities, although the complainant told the police that sometimes she heard the child’s mother talking to someone in the adjacent room.

Charges for violation of Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 in relation to RA 1017, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 will be filed against the couple.
Hueca said they will further probe the extent of the couple’s operations to determine if they also engaged in other illegal activities in the province.