Anti-child trafficking drive: Capitol deploys teams to seaports in Leyte

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — The Leyte provincial government has stepped up its drive against child trafficking by organizing and deploying teams to various ports in the province.

Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla told reporters here that the Leyte  Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office has dispatched anti-child trafficking teams to various ports in cooperation with the police and other law enforcement agencies to combat possible human trafficking, mostly involving  children.

Petilla said his office has noted that traffickers have been using mostly seaports as their access in smuggling children out of Leyte, considering that the security in sea ports were usually more linient compared to land terminals and airports where law enforcers could easily detect such activity.

There were already several instances in the past when members of trafficking syndicates were apprehended and their victims rescued by authorities from various ports in the province, said the governor.

He added that the teams, which were expected to stop child trafficking, were deployed to the ports in Baybay City and the towns of Hilongos, Bato, Palompon and  Isabel. — Primo A. Cayubit (FREEMAN)

Source: philstar.com - Region