CLARK FREEPORT – Senator Grace Poe has called for an investigation of the human trafficking and cyber fraud operations at the premises of the Sun Valley Clark Hub Corp. here
Poe filed on May 8 Senate Resolution No. 595 asking that an appropriate panel investigate the incident last week where over a thousand foreigners and Filipinos were rescued by the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group from a company in the freeport.
“We need to uncover the true scale and roots of human trafficking in the country. This is an insidious crime that must stop,” the senator said in a statement, adding that the conduct of the inquiry will send a strong message to human traffickers that such a crime “won’t be tolerated and will be dealt with the full force of the law.”
This developed even as the Clark Development Corp. has practically denied any accountability over the “alleged” human trafficking and cyber fraud inside the very freeport it is mandated to administer.
In a statement issued on May 7, CDC’s Business Development and Business Enhancement Group said Colorful and Leap Group Company from where alleged victims of human trafficking were rescued in police operations last week “is not a registered business enterprise of the Clark Development Corp.”
On May 3 and 4, the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group raided six five-story buildings of Colorful and Leap Group, inside the Clark Sun Valley Hub Corp. and rescued a total of 1,090 individuals —389 Vietnamese, 307 Chinese, 171 Filipinos, 143 Indonesians, 40 Nepalese, 25 Malaysians, seven Burmese, five Thai, two Taiwanese, and one Hong Kong national.
The police action was conducted by virtue of a search warrant issued by Judge Hermenegildo Dumlao of the Regional Trial Court Branch 81 in Malolos City, Bulacan, for violation of RA 10364 (Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act).
The CDC statement clarified that “the enforcement of the search warrant…was made in the 2.5 hectares sub-leased premises of Sun Valley Clark Hub Corp. (SVCHC), a sub-lessee of Donggwang Clark Corporation II, a CDC-registered business enterprise of a 300-hectare mixed use development.”
“The sublease agreement between Donggwang and SVCHC was approved by CDC on 16 January 2019,” the statement added, in effect denying any direct link with the Colorful and Leap Group Company.
Furthered the CDC statement: “Accordingly, SVCHC has an approved business activity of ‘renting out office and business spaces as well as providing residential spaces to residents in the Clark area which includes improving and/or managing the properties and spaces by providing administrative, maintenance and security services to the tenants’, as reflected in its CDC Certificate of Registration and Tax Exemption issued last 21 December 2021.”
“CDC shall await (sic) for the official report of the PNP Anti Cybercrime Group and the Bureau of Immigration which shall bring to light additional information such as the names of the rescued victims of the alleged human trafficking and the perpetrators,” it added.
In the meanwhile, the CDC said it “shall generate from its Electronic Visa Implementation System for Aliens (e-VISA) database, the list of foreign nationals issued with special visas in favor of SVCHC to aid the PNP Anti Cybercrime Group and the Bureau of Immigration in their respective investigation and eventual prosecution.”
The statement concluded with the CDC declaring that it “shall in no way tolerate any illegal activities inside the Clark Freeport Zone and ensures the public that all registered business enterprises in the Zone are compliant with existing laws and regulations.”
“Chilling effect”
A Clark locator, who asked for anonymity “lest my company be subjected to reprisals,” expressed anxiety over the human trafficking and cyber fraud cases and their impact on every investor and locator in the freeport.
“Human trafficking inside a government-run economic zone…what we only see in those movies about narco states has come for real, right here in Clark!” he exclaimed. “Yes, it gives us that chilling effect.”
Another locator said “the CDC cannot completely wash its hands of the incidents.”
“For Christ’s sake, CDC has overall supervision and administrative powers over the Clark freeport. How can it even think of escaping the least accountability?” he asked. “Or, does CDC even know what due diligence means?” With media reports
