Police rescued 18 women from a bar and a house allegedly being used as prostitution dens in Barangay Palanan, Makati, Thursday night.
Police operatives led by Makati Police Investigation Unit chief Major Gideon Ines Jr., raided the Casino Royal Bar on Casino St. in Barangay Palanan around 11 p.m.
He said they rescued 11 women who were allegedly being sold to foreigners.
Police said they arrested 50-year-old Serges Borjas, the bar caretaker, after he accepted marked money from an undercover policeman.
The alleged prostitution den was only two blocks away from Makati Police Community Precinct 2. In 2018, the bar was raided by the National Bureau of Investigation for the same reason, it was learned.
Ines and his team later raided another sex den, a house, on Emilia St. also in Barangay Palanan, where they rescued seven women, two of them Chinese.
Policemen apprehended its caretakers identified as Junyen Barrios, 42, and Winston Gella, 47.
Taxi drivers, according to Ines, usually bring to the establishments foreigners who are looking for women.
“Whenever foreigners ask where they could get women, taxi drivers bring them to these bars. Maybe they get a cut whenever they bring foreigners here,” he said.
“They usually pay P5,000 for three hours with a woman. Foreigners bring them to nearby motels,” Ines added.
The 18 rescued women were turned over to the Makati City Social Welfare and Development Office.
Makati Police said the arrested caretakers will be charged for violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act. (Jel Santos)
