INQUIRER Global Nation

The police in Iloilo have rescued nine women from Mandaue City, who were allegedly forced to work as sex workers there.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas informed Mandaue officials that these women were just waiting to be brought home.

Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna said Treñas called him to report the successful rescue operation.

Fortuna said he had yet to get the names of these women.

The vice mayor said the women were in the custody of the women's desk of the Iloilo City Police Office while waiting to be brought back to Mandaue.

Necessary papers were also still being processed before the women would be turned over to the social workers of Iloilo.

A legal team from the International Justice Mission, a non-government human rights organization, will fly to Iloilo to provide assistance to the women.

The women are expected to arrive in Mandaue on Saturday night.

Their travel expenses will be shouldered by the Mandaue City government.

The operation to save the nine women was made after their co-workers managed to escape from the prostitution den.

The four women, who are also from Mandaue, said they were recruited by three men to work as waitresses in a restaurant in Iloilo last October.

When they arrived there, they were not brought to a restaurant but to prostitution den.

When the four women reported the incident, Iloilo police then formed the “Oplan Adams Apple” to rescue the other women left in the casa.

The police have arrested the three persons who recruited the women. These recruiters were residents of barangay Paknaan in Mandaue.

A complaint of illegal recruitment and trafficking of persons was filed against the three before the Mandaue City prosecutor's office.