Police have arrested 53 Chinese women who were allegedly being used as sex workers for foreign clients during a raid in a prostitution den in Baclaran in Paranaque City.
Maj. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said the operation at midnight on Wednesday also resulted in the arrest of nine male and four female maintainers of the prostitution den.
The arrested maintainers were identified as Liao Shi Yang, 30; Li Yong Fang, 28; Huang Shi Chun, 31; Xu Yan, 31; Hu Xiao Jing, 31; Fei Wu, 35; Wei Luo, 30; Zou Yu, 21; Zhang Si Yan, 19; Zou Li Peng, 19; Fu Jiang, 42; Xiao Jun He, 34; and Zhong Bin, 31.
“We also arrested 20 customers. We will also charged them for taking advantage of these Chinese women who are victims of human trafficking,” said Eleazar.
Eleazar said the raid on the Manila Wellness Spa located at the 3rd Floor of Diamond Bay Tower on Roxas Boulevard in Baclaran was an offshoot of the operation in Makati City recently wherein seven Vietnamese women were rescued.
He said the conduct of the investigation pointed the police investigators to another prostitution den in Baclaran which resulted in the raid at midnight on Wednesday following a series of surveillance and casing operations of the NCRPO Regional Operations Unit.
Based on the operation, the spa has 37 rooms, seven of them are described as VIP rooms.
The maintainers reportedly charge P9,000 to P21,000 per Chinese sex worker.
“I was able to interview the Filipino utility workers and they told me that they would clean each room five times a day,” said Eleazar.
This means that the operation was a lucrative business for the Chinese operators, according to Eleazar who also revealed that most of the customers are foreigners, particularly Chinese.
In fact, he said his men were able to confiscate some P1.8 million cash believed to be the earnings of the spa for that day.
It was recalled that after the successful operation in a Makati City prostitution den, a Filipino lawyer and his two companions were arrested for trying to bribe the head of the RSOU of P2 million in exchange for the release of the two arrested maintainers.
The spa, according to Eleazar, does not have any permit to operate from the local government unit.
The operations of the Makati and Paranaque prostitution dens were believed to be catering to the workers of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGOs.
POGOs are believed to be employing more than 200,000 Chinese workers in the Philippines.
Kidnapping cases relating to casinos also rose since 2017, also being attributed to the operations of POGOs. (Aaron Recuenco, Joseph Pedrajas)