NOTES ON SPECIALIZED CRIME INVESTIGATION W/ SIMULATION ON INTERROGATION

Prepared by: DEAN RODOLFO V. CASTILLO JR.

V. HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Definition:

Human Trafficking

Known as trafficking in persons or modern-day slavery, is a crime

that involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or
services, or to engage in commercial sex acts. The coercion can be
subtle or overt, physical or psychological.

Trafficking in Persons

Refers to the ACT/S recruitment, obtaining, hiring, providing,

offering, transportation, transfer, maintaining, harboring, or receipt
of persons with or without the victim’s consent or knowledge, within
or across national borders by MEANS of threat, or use of force, or
other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power
or of position, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person,
or, the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the
consent of a person having control over another person for the PURPOSE
of exploitation which includes at a minimum, the exploitation or the
prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced
labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal or sale of organs.

“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, adoption

or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation or when the
adoption is induced by any form of consideration for exploitative
purposes shall also be considered as ‘trafficking in persons’ even if
it does not involve any of the means set forth in the preceding
paragraph”. [S-3(A), R.A. 10364]

Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act Of 2003 [R.A. 9208] as Amended by R.A.

10364

The government’s campaign against human trafficking in the

Philippines is guided by REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9208 (ACT TO INSTITUTE
POLICIES TO ELIMINATE TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS ESPECIALLY WOMEN AND
CHILDREN, ESTABLISHING THE NECESSARY INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS FOR
THE PROTECTION AND SUPPORT OF TRAFFICKED PERSONS, PROVIDING
PENALTIES FOR ITS VIOLATIONS, AND FOR OTHER) which was enacted on
May 26, 2003. However on February 6, 2013, this law was amended
by R.A. 10364, known as the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons
Act.

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CATEGORIES OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

A. Acts of Trafficking in Persons

1. To recruit, obtain, hire, provide, offer, transport, transfer,

maintain, harbor, or receive a person by any means, including
those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment
or training or apprenticeship, for the purpose of prostitution,
pornography, or sexual exploitation;

2. To introduce or match for money, profit, or material, economic

or other consideration, any person or, as provided for under
Republic Act No. 6955, any Filipino woman to a foreign
national, for marriage for the purpose of acquiring, buying,
offering, selling or trading him/her to engage in prostitution,
pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery,
involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

3. To offer or contract marriage, real or simulated, for the purpose

of acquiring, buying, offering, selling, or trading them to
engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced
labor or slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

4. To undertake or organize tours and travel plans consisting of

tourism packages or activities for the purpose of utilizing and
offering persons for prostitution, pornography or sexual
exploitation;

5. To maintain or hire a person to engage in prostitution or

pornography;

6. To adopt persons by any form of consideration for exploitative

purposes or to facilitate the same for purposes of prostitution,
pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery,
involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

7. To adopt or facilitate the adoption of persons for the purpose

of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced
labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

8. To recruit, hire, adopt, transport, transfer, obtain, harbor,

maintain, provide, offer, receive or abduct a person, by means
of threat or use of force, fraud, deceit, violence, coercion,
or intimidation for the purpose of removal or sale of organs
of said person;

9. To recruit, transport, obtain, transfer, harbor, maintain, offer,

hire, provide, receive or adopt a child to engage in armed
activities in the Philippines or abroad;

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 10. To recruit, transport, transfer, harbor, obtain, maintain, offer,
hire, provide or receive a person by means mentioned in the
preceding paragraph for purposes of forced labor, slavery, debt
bondage and involuntary servitude, including a scheme, plan, or
pattern intended to cause the person either:

11. To believe that if the person did not perform such labor or
services, he or she or another person would suffer serious harm
or physical restraint; or

12. To abuse or threaten the use of law or the legal processes;

13. To recruit, transport, harbor, obtain, transfer, maintain, hire,

offer, provide, adopt or receive a child for purposes of
exploitation or trading them, including but not limited to, the
act of buying and/or selling a child for any consideration or
for barter for purposes of exploitation. Trafficking for purposes
of exploitation of children shall include:

14. All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery,

involuntary servitude, debt bondage and forced labor, including
recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;

15. The use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution,

for the production of pornography, or for pornographic
performances;

16. The use, procuring or offering of a child for the production

and trafficking of drugs; and

17. The use, procuring or offering of a child for illegal

activities or work which, by its nature or the circumstances in
which it is carried out, is likely to harm their health, safety
or morals; and

18. To organize or direct other persons to commit the offenses

defined as acts of trafficking.

B. Attempted Trafficking in Persons:

When there are acts to initiate the commission of a

trafficking offense but the offender failed to or did not
execute all the elements of the crime, by accident or by reason
of some cause other than voluntary desistance.

C. Attempted trafficking in persons of a Child

1. Facilitating the travel of a child who travels alone to a foreign

country or territory without valid reason and without the
required clearance or permit from the DSWD or a written
permission from the child’s parent or legal guardian;
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 2. Executing, for a consideration, an affidavit of consent or
a written consent for adoption;

3. Recruiting a woman to bear a child for the purpose of selling

the child;

4. Simulating a birth for the purpose of selling a child; and

5. Soliciting a child and acquiring the custody through any

means from among hospitals, clinics, nurseries, daycare
centers, refugee or evacuation centers, and low-income
families, for the purpose of selling the child.

D. Accomplice in the Commission of Trafficking in Persons

Those knowingly aids, abets, and cooperates in the execution

of the offense by previous or simultaneous acts of trafficking.

E. Accessories in the Commission of Trafficking in Persons

Those who have the knowledge of the commission of the

crime, and without having participated therein, either as
principal or accomplice, take part in its commission in any of
the following manners:

1. Profiting themselves or assisting the offender to profit by

the effects of the crime;

2. Concealing or destroying the body of the crime or effects or

instruments in order to prevent its discovery; and

3. Harboring, concealing or assisting in the escape of the

principal of the crime, provided the accessory acts with
abuse of his or her public functions or is known to be
habitually guilty of some other crime.

F. Acts that Promote Trafficking in Persons

1. To knowingly lease or sublease, use or allow to be used any

house, building or establishment for the purpose of promoting
trafficking in persons;

2. To produce, print and issue or distribute unissued, tampered

or fake counseling certificates, registration stickers,
overseas employment certificates or other certificates of any
government agency which issues these certificates, decals
and such other markers as proof of compliance with government
regulatory and pre-departure requirements for the purpose of
promoting trafficking in persons;

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 3. To advertise, publish, print, broadcast or distribute, or cause
the advertisement, publication, printing, broadcasting or
distribution by any means, including the use of information
technology and the internet, of any brochure, flyer, or any
propaganda material that promotes trafficking in persons;

4. To assist in the conduct of misrepresentation or fraud for

purposes of facilitating the acquisition of clearances and
necessary exit documents from government agencies that are
mandated to provide pre-departure registration and services
for departing persons for the purpose of promoting trafficking
in persons;

5. To facilitate, assist or help in the exit and entry of persons

from/to the country at international and local airports,
territorial boundaries and seaports who are in possession of
unissued, tampered or fraudulent travel documents for the
purpose of promoting trafficking in persons;

6. To confiscate, conceal, or destroy the passport, travel

documents, or personal documents or belongings of trafficked
persons in furtherance of trafficking or to prevent them
from leaving the country or seeking redress from the
government or appropriate agencies;

7. To knowingly benefit from, financial or otherwise, or make use

of, the labor or services of a person held to a condition of
involuntary servitude, forced labor, or slavery;

8. To tamper with, destroy, or cause the destruction of evidence,

or to influence or attempt to influence witnesses, in an
investigation or prosecution of a case;

9. To destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate or possess, or attempt

to destroy, conceal, remove, confiscate or possess, any
actual or purported passport or other travel, immigration
or working permit or document, or any other actual or
purported government identification, of any person in order
to prevent or restrict, or attempt to prevent or restrict,
without lawful authority, the person’s liberty to move or
travel in order to maintain the labor or services of that
person; and

10. To utilize his or her office to impede the investigation,

prosecution or execution of lawful orders in a case.

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 G. Qualified Trafficking in Persons

1. When the trafficked person is a child or below 18 years old;

2. When the adoption is effected through Republic Act No. 8043,

otherwise known as the “Inter-Country Adoption Act of 1995”
and said adoption is for the purpose of prostitution,
pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery,
involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

3. When the crime is committed by a syndicate, or in large scale;

4. When the offender is a spouse, an ascendant, parent, sibling,

guardian or a person who exercises authority over the
trafficked person or when the offense is committed by a
public officer or employee;

5. When the trafficked person is recruited to engage in

prostitution with any member of the military or law
enforcement agencies;

6. When the offender is a member of the military or law

enforcement agencies;

7. When by reason or on occasion of the act of trafficking in

persons, the offended party dies, becomes insane, suffers
mutilation or is afflicted with Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV) or the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS);

8. When the offender commits one or more violations over a

period of sixty (60) or more days, whether those days are
continuous or not; and

9. When the offender directs or through another manages the

trafficking victim in carrying out the exploitative purpose
of trafficking.

Large scale and Syndicated Trafficking in Persons

Syndicated- Those that are carried out by a group of three (3)

or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another.

Large scale- Those that are committed against three (3) or more
persons, individually or as a group.

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 Persons May File Cases of Trafficking in Persons

1. Any person, including a law enforcement officer, who

has personal knowledge of the commission of the
offense;
2. The trafficked person or the offended party;
3. Parents or legal guardians;
4. Spouse;
5. Siblings; or
6. Children.

The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT)?

Composition:
Chairperson: Secretary of the Department of Justice
Co-Chairperson: Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare
and Development
Members:
1. Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs;
2. Secretary, Department of Labor and Employment;
3. Secretary, Department of the Interior and Local Government;
4. Administrator, Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration;
5. Commissioner, Bureau of Immigration;
6. Chief, Philippine National Police;
7. Chairperson, Philippine Commission on Women;
8. Chairperson, Commission on Filipinos Overseas;
9. Executive Director, Philippine Center for Transnational
Crimes; and
10. Three (3) representatives from NGOs, who shall include
one (1) representative each from among the sectors
representing women, overseas Filipinos, and children, with
a proven record of involvement in the prevention and
suppression of trafficking in persons, who shall be
nominated by the government agency representatives of the
Council, for appointment by the President for a term of
three (3) years.

Note:

The members of the Council may designate their permanent

representatives who shall have a rank not lower than an
assistant secretary or its equivalent to meetings, and shall
receive emoluments as may be determined by the Council in
accordance with existing budget and accounting rules and
regulations.

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Investigation, Prosecution and Trial of the Crime of Trafficking in
Persons

Closed-door investigation, prosecution or trial. The name

and personal circumstances of the trafficked person or of the
accused, or any other information tending to establish their
identities and such circumstances or information shall not be
disclosed to the public.

Prescriptive Period of the Crime of Human Trafficking

Trafficking cases under RA 9208 prescribes in ten (10)

years; Trafficking cases committed by a syndicate or in a large
scale prescribes in twenty (20) years. The prescriptive period
commences to run from the day on which the trafficked person is
delivered or released from the conditions of bondage and
interrupted by the filing of the complaint or information and
commence to run again when such proceedings terminate without
the accused being convicted or acquitted or are unjustifiably
stopped for any reason not imputable to the accused.

Penalties for the Crime of Trafficking in Persons

Act Penalty
Acts of Trafficking
20 years imprisonment and a fine of P 1 Million to P 2 Million

Attempted Trafficking 15 years imprisonment and a fine of P 500,000 to P 1 Million

Accomplice Liability 15 years imprisonment and a fine of P 500,000 to P 1 Million

Accessories
15 years imprisonment and a fine of P 500,000 to P 1 Million
Acts that Promote 15 years imprisonment and a fine of P 500,000 to P 1 Million
Trafficking
Qualified Trafficking Life imprisonment and a fine of P 2 Million to P 5 Million

Violation of Six (6) years imprisonment and a fine of P 500,000 to P 1

Confidentiality Million
Imprisonment of Prision Correccional or 6 months and 1 day to 6
Use of Trafficked Person years and P50,000 to P100,000 fine

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 If involves sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct with a child:

-Imprisonment of Reclusion Temporal in its medium period to

Reclusion Perpetua and P500,000 to 1 Million fine

If involves carnal knowledge of, or sexual intercourse with, a

male or female trafficking victim and also involves the use of
force or intimidation, to a victim deprived of reason or to an
unconscious victim, or a victim under 12 years of age:
-Imprisonment of Reclusion Perpetua or 20 years and 1 day to
40 years and 1 Million to 5 Million fine

If committed by a foreigner:
-Deportation after serving the sentence and permanently
barred from entering the country

If committed by Public Official:

-Dismissal from service, perpetual absolute disqualification in
addition to imprisonment and fine

-ooOoo-

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