2 foreigners, Filipina arrested for illegally living with minors

[TimL]

TWO American nationals and their Filipina cohort were arrested at 8:30 p.m. Monday, October 29, after they were found living illegally with two minors in Barangay Sta. Lucia, Asturias, Cebu.

Police identified the suspects as John Herman Carder Jr., 76, Jim Dean Syfert, 52, and Frailline Mae Sagabala, 19.

The minors (twins), who are 14 years old, were rescued and brought to the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO).

The girls told the police that the suspects offered them last October 26 two cellphones, P500 for purchase of clothes, full scholarship grants, and installation of electricity in their house if they agree to work for them as house helpers.

Before the arrest happened, a concerned citizen informed the police about two minors living with the foreigners.

A rescue was conducted by the Asturias Police Station, MSWDO and Sta. Lucia barangay officials.

The group, accompanied by the owner of the house the suspects are renting, went inside the house and saw one of the suspects wearing only an underwear while facing the minors. During the rescue, the minors were seen drinking hard liquor with the suspects.

A foreigner caught in the company of a minor who is not his relative violates Republic Act (RA) 7610, or the Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act.

Section 10 (b) of RA 7610 prohibits any person to be in the company of “a minor, 12 years or under or who is 10 years or more his junior in any public or private place, hotel, motel, beer joint, discotheque, cabaret, pension house, sauna or massage parlor, beach and/or other tourist resort or similar places.” (KAL)

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1771698/Cebu/Local-News/2-foreigners-Filipina-arrested-for-illegally-living-with-minors

 

[TimL]

Sorry, looks like I posted this in the wrong forum. Mods, if you would be so kind.... ;0

[scott h]

I am not justifying this type of behavior,,,,repeat AM NOT!!!!! Most, if not all, of us on this forum agree.

But just to point out to any doubters out there that foreigners are guilty until proven innocent and most of the time have a target on their backs.

Consider. Believe it or not the age of consent here is 12 years old.  In reading the article and the statute these kids were in a "home" not one of the establishments listed in the quoted law. The suspects were in their "underwear", well no kidding, it is a little warm here in the Philippines .

I always get a kick out of these "rescues". The girls were 15, above the age of consent, not in one of the listed places and were supposedly "working as house helpers" for compensation.  

Now just on my street, I know of two minor females who live in with families who are not their relatives and have been doing so for years. Their parents can not take care of them (drugs or jail not sure which), wonder if is should call the police for a rescue lolol 

[graham59]

IF the details of this story are correct, then the two gentlemen were at the very least, naive fools who should have known better.

The age of consent applies to locals only (both parties).

There has been plenty of publicity about this law.

Their country. Their rules.

If you want to stay out of jail, behave yourself, and hire an old lady (who could do with the work) , to clean up after you.

[scott h]

15 minutes ago, graham59 said:

The age of consent applies to locals only

now THAT I did not know,,,,thanks 

[Dave Hounddriver]

This is one of those stories where Filipinos can do this all the time, (hire school kids as working students who live there and do chores to pay their way) but foreigners cannot do it.  That's life.  International agencies have instilled the fear of the bogeyman into local people such that they believe all foreigners who want to help kids in any way are pervs.  Heck, maybe they are, I don't know.  I do know that certain Filipino households that hire "working students" abuse the kids.  I have seen it.  But you cannot get them rescued. 

EDIT:  I used to have underage girls come to my house all the time in Canada.  We called them "babysitters" or sometimes they were "housecleaners" or sometimes "candy-stripers" if they were helping take care of my ailing father.  It was not a big deal at the time.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Dave Hounddriver

[Rooster]

9 minutes ago, scott h said:

now THAT I did not know,,,,thanks 

Federal law prohibits an American citizen or resident to travel to a foreign country with intent to engage in any form of sexual conduct with a minor (defined as persons under 18 years of age).

https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/extraterritorial-sexual-exploitation-children

[AlwaysRt]

39 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I used to have underage girls come to my house all the time in Canada.  We called them "babysitters" or sometimes they were "housecleaners" or sometimes "candy-stripers" if they were helping take care of my ailing father.  It was not a big deal at the time.

Yes, a mutual benefit as you had assistance and the kids earned some pocket money and learned responsibility. Let a very small minority of pervert abusers get some media coverage and the 99.9% of adult 'employers' and 99.9% of young 'employees' both lose the benefits/opportunities they had. So often new laws punish the innocent as the existing laws already are in place to punish the actual perpetrators. 

[Jack Peterson]

 So a Dilemma  Lets look at the other side of the coin ( and many times we do not) Please read me out here, I have no respect at all for undesirables that take advantage of Situations they produce and would never defend them But there is a side that the Philippine Government overlooks in a lot of cases, could it be that we should see minimum Ages set for certain things and stuck to ( now I can't find it domestically here in the PI only for OFW's.) 

Scenario;

Families helper goes away to a family bereavement and asks a Local cleaning company to provide a stand-in ( There are some here in Dumaguete) Ok now the crunch, a 16 or 17-year-old K 12 Student is entitled to take a job to support herself  more so if they have left school prior K12 and wants to work. So the young Girls turns up, Legally employed with all the ID's and such. Great, Jobs a Good one BUT and there is always a BUT it now leaves the said Householder ( and in this case lets presume a foreigner)  It now leaves him with a Minor who is there legally,  But now it is illegal as she is a Minor with no family connection. I know of 2 cases this has happened and all was well But suppose as we know can happen. Just upset anyone Locally and Bingo Gotcha, as we know it is a shoot first ask questions later thing here on most occasions.

 I am certainly not saying anything like this has or did happen in the case of the Topic But I feel that the powers that be here should take some responsibility for things that happen when they themselves should/could have done something about it.

We will always see the helpers in the way we do, family, friends of the family I only Post this because there are times when a situation demands/warrants an action that ends up with a Foreigner in Trouble, we call them naive but again it was all legal then became the farce of illegal

Sorry but there are days when a Right becomes a wrong 

 MORAL; Make all Domestic Workers on a Minimum Age of 18+ Then we may see something better Happening and there can never be any Argument, you got a Minor in your House? BAD, Bad I say  Your Nicked and so they should be

 

 Jack

Morning All

[hk blues]

I tend to agree with Jack on this - in many cases the situation is innocent and in many cases it isn't.  The fact that the less than innocent cases exist is enough to say change the law to remove the grey areas that some take advantage of for different reasons.  Best not to get into such situations in the first place - as a poster above says, if you want some help hire someone who is in need of the work AND old enough not to set local tongues wagging.  

Always better safe than sorry, especially here.