President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. has directed law enforcers and other government agencies to intensify their efforts in combatting online sexual abuse and exploitation of children in the country.
The President made the directive during a meeting in Malacañang on Wednesday, April 24.
"At yesterday's sectoral meeting, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. condemned in the strongest of terms the crimes of online sexual abuse or exploitation of children (OSAEC) and child sexual abuse or exploitation materials (CSAEM) in the Philippines," Palace briefer Daphne Paez told reporters during a briefing on Thursday.
She added that Marcos ordered the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Department of Justice (DoJ), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other agencies "in the national coordinating center to intensify the fight against OSAEC and CSAEM."
In the same briefing, Margarita Magsaysay, officer-in-charge executive director of the National Coordinating Council on OSAEC and CSAEM, revealed that the online sexual abuse on children have become rampant in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, and Taguig city.
"They are the children who are in poorer side of country, who are in the rural areas, tina-target sila because they are easy targets because OSAEC is [a] financially lucrative activity, so kung makagat na 'yung mga victims mga P300, P200 for just showing CSAEM, showing nude pictures," she said.
According to Magsaysay, billions of money have been going around the OSAEC. She added that in 2020 alone, suspicious transactions amounted to more than P83 million.
"I can give you po iyong STRs, the Suspicious Transaction Report that is reported by the AMLC. So, in their study, the volume of the Suspicious Transaction Report that was reported to them by the covered persons – mga banks ito, mga money service businesses – for the year 2020 ay P83,348,106 in value. So, that’s just for the second half of 2020," she stated.
"In 2021, iyong STR volume po, Suspicious Transaction Report was 68,214 – that’s the volume and iyong value naman noong volume na iyon is P996,705,339. Sa 2022 naman, the STR volume is 92,200 and its value was P478,278,797," Magsaysay continued.
