The Rescue of Victims of Human Trafficking and Conviction of a US National
July 17, 2018 ·
The Rescue of Victims of Human Trafficking and Conviction of a US National
Francis B. Bermido Jr.
July 17, 2018
It was another night of surveillance in the sex bars of Calapandayan, Subic. Preda social workers were there seeking out to save the young victims of human trafficking. Thousands of children are bought and sold as sex slaves in the sex industry in the Philippines. These places are exploiting the children, offering them for sale to the highest bidder if they are still virgins. Many bar owners are US nationals like Arthur D. Benjamin and they use the internet to advertise and offer the girls and lure customers to come from the United States to abuse the children.
Arthur D. Benjamin, a US national set up the Crow Bar, later called Avila’s Bar. He had many young minors there in captivity. They would start around 7pm and dance and go in the back to small rooms to have sex with customers. The human traffickers lure the children from their impoverished homes in the countryside or from the slums to work as “guest entertainers” or food servers but in fact they are raped and abused and trapped in debt bondage.
Another US national, Lilian “Sherry” Zimmer, is under investigation for bringing children to sex tourists in the sex bars of Olongapo City, a crime of human trafficking for which she can be prosecuted in the USA or extradited back to the Philippines.
When the Preda undercover social workers visited the bar, they saw many young girls dancing almost naked and sex tourists soliciting sex from them. Two American journalists from ABC TV New York were also there doing interviews with Benjamin. They later broadcast it. This video on YouTube is known as The Raid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xRCk8Ni-cs
The Preda social workers with the help of former girls who worked in the sex bar identified the minors there and also went to the nearby Miami Bar and discovered minors being exploited also. They wanted to escape. Preda planned to rescue them. Working with a former assistant Secretary of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation, a rescue was planned. It was coordinated with the officers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the US Embassy in Manila and they assigned a special agent to investigate Benjamin, a US national.
Preda social workers planned the rescue. They kept the name of the sex bars secret until the last hour and they led the officers to the bars to rescue the children. The NBI brought government dentists with them to verify the ages of the sex workers. They gathered evidence that they were minors. Benjamin was arrested for violation of the anti-trafficking and child abuse laws and brought to jail in Manila. The rescued children and young women, fifteen in all, were brought first to the Preda Center and then transferred to the care of the government social workers and were cared for and made their statements. Preda pursued the case through the court against Benjamin and after four and half years in jail, he pleaded guilty. The court awarded the main victim of Benjamin a financial compensation.
The US ICE officers have since filed charges against Benjamin in a US court for violation of the extraterritorial law. This is another success for the anti-trafficking cooperation of the Preda Foundation and the authorities of the Philippines and the United States and bringing a criminal to justice and saving many children.
The US ICE officers are very dedicated and interested in prosecuting US nationals like Benjamin and his associates who sexually abuse children and aid and abet sexual abuse. Evidence is mounting that Lilian “Sherry” Zimmer, the US national who escaped justice in the Philippines and now resides in North Carolina and has a Philippine arrest warrant against her, allegedly brought children to sex tourists in Olongapo City, a crime of human trafficking.
End.
About the Author. Francis B. Bermido Jr. has been with the Preda Foundation for 17 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in management, both from the University of the Philippines- Diliman, and a post-graduate diploma in Children, Youth and Development from the Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University, The Hague, The Netherlands. He is presently the executive director of the Preda Foundation administering and directing all its social welfare programs. Preda has been a beneficiary of USAID funds to combat trafficking.
Email: [email protected] www.preda.org
