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LUCENA CITY: Thirteen girls were rounded up by the
police in a search conducted Monday by operatives of PNP Regional
Special Operations Group (RSOG) led by Police Supt. Willy Reyes at
the residence of prominent businessman Edward Sy Bang.
Armed with a search warrant
signed by Judge Cesar Mangrubang of Imus RTC Branch 22, Reyes’
team, assisted by the SWAT Team of Lucena City Police Station,
proceeded at Sy Bang’s residence in Pleasant Ville Subdivision in
Barangay Ilayang Iyam at 11 a.m.
Sy Bang happened to be in his
pick-up parked near his residence when the police arrived, and he
refused to step out. Two hours of searching the house led to the
police to 13 girls, three of them minors. The girls reportedly
worked as GROs in Sy Bang’s nightclub in Tayabas City.
The girls, accompanied by Social
Worker Cristy Fernandez, were brought to the women’s desk of the
Lucena PNP while the SWAT Team had to break open the doors of the
pick-up with a crow bar to force Sy Bang out.
Sy Bang, along with the girls,
were escorted by the latter’s lawyers Monday night at the RSOG
headquarters at Camp Vicente Lim in Canlubang, Laguna.
Reyes said on Tuesday they are
about to file human trafficking charges against Sy Bang as well as
violation of Republic Act 7610, or the Anti-Child Abuse and
Exploitation Act.
--Belly M. Otordoz
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