OVER 100 nude photos of children found in the possession of a man arrested in the US came from the Philippines, the National Bureau of Investigation said Monday.
At a press conference, NBI’s Cybercrime Division (NBI-CCD) Chief Ronald Aguto identified the sources of the photos as Lyan Tandez and Shellina Atad, who were arrested in “Operation Swift Traveler” entrapment conducted last Nov. 4 at a coffee shop inside Marquee Mall in Angeles City, Pampanga.
The two were arrested after meeting with undercover NBI agents in the mall to pimp an 8-year-old girl.
“Tandeg and Atad offered to the undercover agents the minor and showed them the nude photos of the other minors stored in their flashdrive,” Aguto said.
Aguto added that they are currently conducting manhunt operation on a certain Jeffrey Ganuten who is allegedly giving instructions to Tandeg.
The NBI operation started after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) gave information to the Philippines about the child pornography operations in the country.
Aguto said the information was obtained following the arrest of a certain Michael Carey Clemans at the US Customs and Border Patrol at San Francisco International Airport last April 27 for possession of more or less 100 images of naked children in his tablet.
The FBI also provided the NBI a copy of the Yahoo Messenger chat conversation between Clemans and Tandeg, which contained evidence of child prostitution and child pornography.
“Working on that lead, the cybercrime operatives conducted further investigation and surveillance operations on Tandeg and her accomplices to confirm the veracity of the report and to determine the propriety of a counteraction,” the NBI official said.
Aguto said based on their own surveillance operations, Tandeg and her partners peddle the children, whose age ranges from 8 to 12-years-old, for sex to foreign clients for P3,000 per night.
He said deep cover agents were able to chat with Tandeg and they claimed that the suspect offered a child for a nude photo shoot and sex.
“Tandeg also promised to bring nude photos of children for sale who, according to her, are also available for sexual services,” Aguto added.
“Fully convinced that Tandeg and her partners are engaged in child pornography, sex trafficking and the online sexual exploitation of minors, an entrapment operation was hatched,” he explained.
He said the undercover agents gave to Tandeg one white envelope containing P500 bills as marked money and also gave another white envelope which also contained marked P500 bills to Atad.
After they were able to get the child into their custody, Aguto said the NBI agents immediately arrested the suspects.
Both suspects were detained at the NBI headquarters and charged with violation of Republic Act (RA) 9208 as amended by RA 10364 (qualified child trafficking) in relation to RA 10175 and Sec. 5 of RA 9775 (syndicated child pornography).