OPERATIVES of the National Bureau of Investigation have arrested three women allegedly engaged in human trafficking and rescued 137 people, including 25 minors, set for overseas deployment.
Acting on information from a 16-year-old who was intercepted by Immigration officers from traveling to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the bureau arrested Patricia Lambino, alias Mommy, Rosie Lopez and Marilyn Filomeno on May 4.
They are facing charges for violations of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, as amended by its expanded version, and of the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, the NBI said in a statement on Tuesday.
NBI International Airport Investigation Unit agents and Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking and social welfare department representatives, meanwhile, rescued the female victims found in an apartment in Tolentino Street in Pasay City.
Twenty-five of the 107 rescued people are from Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur and Cotabato, the NBI said.
Information showed that the minor intercepted at the airport was recruited in her home province of Maguindanao and obtained a passport through the help of a certain Pamiya Muhammad, who allegedly made the teenager appear to be 23 years old.
The minor, who was not named in the statement, said she stayed at the apartment in Pasay City and was given Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and pre-departure seminar certificates without actually undergoing training and seminar, the bureau said.