Qualified Human Trafficking vs. Apollo Quiboloy: Explanation

MANILA: The most serious criminal case against Apollo Quiboloy (pictured) involved aggravated human trafficking, a non-bailable offense.

Human trafficking in itself is already a very serious crime.

But under the law, human trafficking is even more serious when it is considered a “qualified crime”: it is a crime for which no bail is considered and is punishable by life imprisonment and a fine of not less than two million pesos and not more than five million pesos.

As the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) explains, human trafficking is considered a crime in the following cases:

> The person trafficked is a child.

> The adoption is pursuant to RA No. 8043 or the Inter-Country Adoption Act and the adoption is for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

> The crime is committed by a syndicate or is on a large scale.

> The perpetrator is a spouse, an ascendant, a parent, a sibling, a guardian or a person exercising authority over the person being trafficked.

> The offence was committed by a public official or public employee.

> The trafficked person is recruited to engage in prostitution with a member of the military or law enforcement.

> The perpetrator is a member of the military or a law enforcement agency.

> The trafficked person died, went mad, suffered mutilation or became infected with HIV/AIDS.

> The offender commits one or more TIP acts over a period of 60 or more days; and

> The perpetrator controls the victim of human trafficking or manages him or her through another person.

Quiboloy’s arrest on Sunday (September 8) drew attention to the fight against exploitation, especially of women and children, in a country where human trafficking is widespread.

As Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. stressed, the crimes Quiboloy is accused of are “monstrous” and “no power or influence can protect him from the full force of the law.”

“The hour of reckoning has come,” he said.

Quiboloy was arrested a few weeks after police began searching the premises of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) in Davao City to execute the arrest warrant issued against him on the following charges:

> Violation of RA No. 7610 or the Law on the Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination

> Violation of RA No. 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act

The arrest warrant against Quiboloy and his five co-defendants for violating the Child Abuse Act was issued on April 1 by Branch 12 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Davao City.

Less than two weeks later, RTC Branch 159 in Pasig City also ordered the arrest of Quiboloy and his co-defendants for violating the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, a bail-free offense.

The cases against Quiboloy were filed in March after the Department of Justice granted a female victim’s petition for reconsideration seeking the overturning of the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office’s dismissal of her complaint in 2020.

The Exodus Road, an anti-trafficking non-governmental organization, points out that human trafficking is the second largest “criminal enterprise” in the world after drug trafficking and that it is a “significant problem” in the Philippines.

“It has one of the largest victim populations in the world, with an estimated 784,000 people living as modern-day slaves,” the report says. Indigenous peoples, internally displaced persons, women and children are most at risk.

The Philippines has an anti-trafficking law – RA No. 9208, enacted in 2003 and amended in 2012 by RA No. 10364, also known as the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.

As the PCW explains, human trafficking is a crime that violates human rights and is perpetrated by interdependent and interconnected elements:

Acts involving the recruitment, procurement, hiring, provision, offering, transportation, transfer, keeping, harbouring or receiving of persons, with or without the consent or knowledge of the victim, within or across national borders;

Means committed by threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, kidnapping, fraud, deception, abuse of power or position, exploitation of a person’s vulnerability or the giving or acceptance of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of a person having control over another person; and

Purposes which are carried out for the purpose of exploitation or prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or servitude, slavery, involuntary servitude or the removal or sale of organs.

PCW stated that these are the offenses defined in RA No. 9208, as amended by RA No. 10364, and are punishable by 20 years imprisonment and a fine of not less than P1 million but not more than P2 million:

> To recruit, transport, transfer, accommodate, provide or receive a person by any means, including under the pretext of employment at home or abroad or of training or an apprenticeship for illegal purposes.

> Introducing or bringing together a person or a Filipino woman for marriage to a foreign national in return for money, profit or material, economic or other consideration, with the aim of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or trafficking him/her for the purpose of carrying out illegal activities;

> Offering or arranging a marriage, real or fictitious, for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or exchanging with participation in illegal activities;

> to undertake or organise tours and travel plans consisting of tourism packages or activities the purpose of which is the use and offering of persons for prostitution, pornography or sexual exploitation;

> Maintaining or engaging a person to engage in prostitution or pornography;

> Adopting or facilitating the adoption of persons for illegal purposes;

> recruiting, employing, adopting, transporting or abducting a person by threat or use of force, fraud, deception, violence, coercion or intimidation for the purpose of removing or selling that person’s organs; and

> Recruiting, transporting or adopting a child for the purpose of participating in armed activities in the Philippines or abroad

While significant progress has been made in the fight against human trafficking in the Philippines, The Exodus Road stressed that “as the numbers show, it remains a significant problem.”

According to the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report: Philippines, there were 1,802 and 1,277 identified victims in the Philippines in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Most of them were victims of sex trafficking (535 in 2022 and 740 in 2023). Over 1,000 people were victims of labor trafficking and another 766 were victims of unspecified exploitation.

The US State Department stated that the penalties for human trafficking are severe enough and, as far as sex trafficking is concerned, “are consistent with penalties for other serious crimes, such as rape.”

In 2023, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police investigated nearly 300 cases and prosecuted 139 suspected traffickers – 115 sex trafficking cases and 24 labor trafficking cases.

In 2022, 168 cases of human trafficking were investigated and 298 suspected traffickers were prosecuted – 224 sex trafficking cases and 62 labor trafficking cases. Twelve others were prosecuted for unspecified exploitation.

However, the number of convictions is lower: 86 in 2023 and 56 in 2022. Most, 129, were convicted of sex trafficking in the last two years, while eight were convicted of labor trafficking.

Quiboloy, who was indicted in the United States in 2021, was accused of violating Section 4(a) of the law, which lists prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude and debt bondage as illegal. – Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN