DOJ: Clark human trafficking suspects to face charges or deportation

The government may choose to either deport or file charges against the 12 individuals involved in the alleged trafficking of over 1,000 victims in Clark, Pampanga, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Monday.

“We have to file the necessary charges against them. The choices now are whether we file charges and we don’t deport or we deport without filing charges, but we cannot have both,” Remulla said in an ambush interview.

“We cannot deport people who have charges… but we will strike a good compromise on this so that people will know that we really have to put some people in jail. Kukulong natin ‘yung dapat makulong,” he added.

This came after operatives from various government agencies rescued more than 1,000 trafficking victims from the Clark Sun Valley Hub Corporation at the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone in Mabalacat, Pampanga on May 4.

Remulla confirmed that most of the 12 individuals identified as the traffickers were foreign nationals.

The Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) brought the 12 individuals to the Department of Justice for inquest proceedings on Saturday.

The DOJ said the hearing was reset to May 15 to allow respondents to file their counter-affidavits.

According to the agency,  the alleged traffickers are under the custody of the PNP-ACG.

Meanwhile, the victims were turned over to the Inter-Agency Task Force Against Trafficking (IACAT) Operations Center (OpCen) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for shelter, meals, and other assistance.

“Preliminary evidence indicates that the victims were recruited as call center agents to entice foreign customers from the United States, Canada, and Europe to invest in cryptocurrency,” the DOJ said.

“The victims, mostly male, were instructed to pretend to be attractive women to lure their victims to invest,” it added.

According to Remulla, he will meet with officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) over the incident.

“I will be meeting PAGCOR about this to ask them about the licenses that we’ve been giving. We might as well make an inventory of all the licenses and all the people who are here based on the licenses given by PAGCOR,” he said.

Meanwhile, the DOJ said it expects further investigation into other parties who may be involved in the trafficking incident.

The BI is assisting foreign nationals while the Department of Foreign Affairs is coordinating with various embassies for the repatriation of the victims.

According to the DOJ, the operatives also seized numerous devices which are currently being processed by the PNP-ACG.—LDF, GMA Integrated News