Woman, 22, Gets Two Life Sentences Plus Sixty Years for Trafficking Children

Woman, 22, Gets Two Life Sentences Plus Sixty Years for Trafficking Children

Preda news
July 2020

The heinous crimes of selling children as sex slaves to foreign pedophiles has brought down one of the heaviest penalties of Philippine law on a 22-year old woman who sold two young children continuously for three years to a US national for pornography and sex in Angeles City, Philippines.

In a 81-page decision dated 11 June 2020, Judge Maria Angelica T. Paras-Quiambao of the Regional Trial Court Branch 59 in Angeles City, Pampanga found Christina Limpin Mendoza guilty beyond reasonable doubt of five counts of Violation of Section 4(a) in relation to Section 6(a) and Section 10(a) of Republic Act No. 9208 (Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003) as amended by Republic Act No. 10364 (Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012) committed against the two child victims.

In the two cases filed against her, Mendoza was sentenced to life imprisonment and likewise ordered to pay a fine of P2,000,000, and to pay the two children-victims P500,000 each as moral damages and P100,000 each for exemplary damages. For the crimes committed in the other three cases filed against her, she was also found guilty and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and to pay one of the victims P1,000,000 and the other P500,000 as moral damages and P100,000 each as exemplary damages. Among the six cases filed against her, she was found not guilty in only one case.

The children were only nine and 11 years old when they were first trafficked and sold to the American suspect pedophile in 2013 and the abuse continued until 2016. Mendoza was bringing the two child survivors to the pedophile’s apartment in Angeles Cty where he, with another unidentified Australian, sexually abused the children. They photographed the abuse. It is likely they shared the photos with other pedophilias over the internet. They paid Mendoza, the trafficker and pimp.

The convicted woman, Christina Limpin Mendoza, at the time she began trafficking the children was considered a minor who acted with discernment in three of the cases filed against her. The two child victims were threatened by Mendoza. She had them under her control and kept them in her mother’s house as their parents had abandoned them. If they did not do what she said, she threatened to throw them out and send them away. Sometimes she hurt the two children because they resisted and tried to fight back against her. She also gave them money so they would not complain or report what was being done to them.

When Preda Foundation social workers received a tip-off about the sexual abuse, they immediately organized the rescue operation of the children. The children took Emotional Release Therapy at the Preda Home for abused children and they released their anger and pain and feelings against Mendoza and their abusers.

The case was prolonged because of continuous motions of the accused. It was also known that she was supported financially by the pedophile who reportedly had fled the country.

The children were courageous in testifying and as the judge said they gave clear testimony that withstood the test of cross examination. Despite a thwarted attempt to abduct the child witness from the Preda children’s home, justice was achieved by the just judgement of Judge Maria Angelica T. Paras-Quiambao. When justice is done, the victims find an end and closure. It is healing for them. They are strengthened and determined to make a new life for themselves. This is only one of the reasons why we all must keep on fighting for their rights and seeking justice.

End