For 12 years, nobody has the faintest idea that a three-storey building at the corner of E. Jacinto and H. Grupo Streets is maintaining a “sex farm” somewhere in Barangay Sta. Fe, Alburquerque town. Until Friday night when a combined posse of SWAT operatives and personnel of both Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) swooped down on the unsuspecting residential house yielding three young girls. Just like in big league basketball, a professional team has its own “farm team,” where it sources its players en route to the professional league. Believed to be victims of human trafficking, the three young girls were found to have been working at a popular night outpost known as Solid Gold KTV Bar. The three girls were rescued by SWAT forces Friday night from the bar owner's residential house in Barangay Sta. Fe, Alburquerque town.

Losing no time, City Mayor John Geesnell “Baba” Yap immediately ordered the closure of Solid Gold KTV Bar, which for the last 12 years has been renting for P21,000 a month the second and third floors of an old commercial building near Tagbilaran City Square. Mayor Yap's order, as confirmed by City Administrator Edi Borja, was served by the city police and City Hall officials shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday. “Since the owner was not around last night, the assigned security guard received the order and complied with it,” Borja told Bohol Sunday Post last night. “If found in violation of city and national laws, Solid Bar KTV Bar will be permanently closed,” Borja said. Meanwhile, Geraldo “Gerry” Osabel, owner of Solid Gold Bar, will be facing a non-bailable offense in relation to his alleged spearheading of illegal recruitment of young girls from Mindanao who were forced to work at his bar, according to Police Senior Inspector Roland Desiree Lavisto, head of the Provincial Public Safety Company (PPSC) and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) of the Bohol Provincial Office (BPPO).

The lure of big money must have encouraged the young girls from Mindanao to cross the Bohol seas to find employment. Easily swayed by the sugar-coated sales pitches of human trafficking recruiters, the young girls have no second thoughts saying yes to the lucrative offer of potential employment. By the sight of the palatial mansion, owned by Osabel, which is made as living quarters of sex workers, the young girls were then convinced to work in the KTV Bar as guest relations officers (GRO). Nothing wrong there if they were just allowed as far as servicing the needs of customers like serving them food and drinks. The arrangement becomes scandalous when the girls are allowed to go out with customers for a “one night stand.” What is worst in working in the KTV bar is when the girls were used as conduits in alleged illegal drug sales. In the case of the Solid Gold GRO joint, drug transactions are said to be going on between the girls and drug users, according to a classified police intelligent memo. That makes the establishment fronting as a drug den aside from being a source of sexual services, the intelligence report said.

On the other hand, the three rescued girls are now under the custody of the provincial DSWD office. They are among the more than ten young girls monitored by SWAT and planned to be rescued from what the police said “sex den” of Osabel's Solid Gold Bar. The three were intercepted by SWAT forces while being transported by their bouncers at a barangay in Baclayon. They were later brought back to the house of Osabel in Albur where the search warrant was served by the police. Regional Trial Court Judge Dionisio Calibo on April 28, 2014 issued the search warrant based on a strong evidence presented by the police that Osabel has allegedly violated Republic Act 9208, which has been amended as RA 10364, or the law on anti-human trafficking, an offense strongly condemned by the United Nations (UN) and the international community of free nations. During the application of the search warrant, Calibo was presented with an authenticated copy of a police blotter from Albur Police Station which revealed that sometime in September 2012 a 17-year old girl, reportedly converted into a “sex slave,” jumped over the fence of Osabel's house and sought help from Albur residents and the police.

The girl (name withheld) was recruited from Libertad, Butuan City by an unidentified agent of Osabel who convinced the innocent girl that a decent job with a good pay awaited her in Bohol. But the girl, to her surprise, landed a sordid job at Solid Gold Bar. According to statements extracted by the police from the victim, she was one of the sex workers at Solid Gold who had felt hopeless of escaping from a grimy underworld. Police record showed that the young girl, together with other young women who were kept at the house of Osabel, was transported to Solid Gold Bar every night from Osabel's palatial residence in Albur. The victim said she had no means of escaping from the clutches of Osabel since there are guards at Solid Gold who kept an eye on them. “We believe that these young girls are forced to enter into prostitution after they were being illegally recruited from outside the province of Bohol,” Lavisto told station DYTR and DYRD's Tagbilaran-By-Nite Program. “We have been monitoring the operations of Solid Gold Bar,” Lavisto said, “and we conclude that they are doing something illegal in violation of a national law, which is the anti-human trafficking law.”

Lavisto, upon orders of Bohol PNP Director Police Senior Superintendent Dennis P. Agustin, got wind of the plight of the 17-year old girl from Butuan City during an anti-human trafficking seminar he had attended. He said a source had tipped him off that Solid Gold Bar has been engaging in human trafficking. Sources said Lavisto and his SWAT men have been tailing the ins and outs of “sex slaves” at Solid Gold Bar since last year. “We had to complete first all the legal procedures and requirements before we conducted this raid,” Lavisto said. “We believe that we got is just a tip of the iceberg.” Witnessing the inventory of the raid were provincial DOLE head Gerry Guidaben, provincial DSWD head Carmelita Tecson, members of Bohol media, and two barangay officials of Albur. Guidaben, in an interview over station DYTR and DYRD's Tagbilaran-By-Nite, has called on the public to be vigilant over illegal recruitment. The DOLE chief said that the despicable act of human trafficking may masquerade as good job offers. “Kinahanglan magbantay ta ug mag-amping ta sa mga tawo nga motanyag ug trabaho nga dili ta segurado sa kapadulngan. Ang atong buhatan sa DOLE kanunay nga bukas alang sa inyong mga pangutana,” Guidaben said over the radio.

Tecson said the DSWD would conduct a debriefing on the rescued girls. She said the DSWD, as the leading agency that protects the plight of trafficked young women, will closely coordinate with the Bohol PNP in the investigation and in the filing of appropriate charges against the perpetrators of human trafficking and prostitution. Meanwhile, Col. Agustin has warned illegal recruiters and human traffickers that the Bohol Police Provincial Office would use the might of the law in order to spare Bohol from becoming a dumpsite of “sex slaves” from Mindanao, or any part of the country for that matter. Agustin, who has ordered daily raids and buy-busts on illegal drug peddlers all over Bohol, has called on the Boholano people and all the officials of Bohol to help the police in sustaining the peace and order situation here and in protecting the province from the clout of criminals. “Alagaan natin ang Bohol. Isa lang ang Bohol. Kasama tayong lahat na itaguyod ang kapayapaan at kabutihan sa buong probinsya natin,” Agustin told the media during an earlier interview. Meanwhile, City Administrator Borja said that the city government would not tolerate any illegal operation involving minors. “The administration of City Mayor Baba Yap, in cooperation with the City Police Office led by Police Supt. Jovito Atanacio, will not allow human traffickers to thrive in Tagbilaran,” Borja said in an interview. “We are going to conduct more investigations into this kind of entertainment, and rest assured that we will not allow Tagbilaran become a haven of sex slaves,” Borja said.