On July 24, Mandaue City police rescued two individuals at Mango Green Village on A.S. Fortuna Street. On the same day, the Mandaue City Prosecutor's Office requested the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to detain the two Indonesians, who had filed a minor illegal detention complaint against a Chinese citizen and his Filipino wife.
"The Prosecutor's Office suggested that these Indonesian nationals might be victims of human trafficking, hence, we conducted further investigations based on this claim... We were able to confirm that they were victims of human trafficking," NBI Cebu District Office head Arnel Pura told reporters on September 3. On July 31, NBI Director Jaime Santiago received a letter from the Indonesian Embassy urging the bureau to investigate reports of at least 40 Indonesians being forced into scam jobs. NBI agents revealed in a joint judicial arrest affidavit on September 3 that these two Indonesians came from a POGO center in Bangbanan, which was raided on June 4. The Indonesians were eventually moved to Cebu on June 8, along with 12 Chinese bosses, who continued their operations at the LMSK building in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.
"These Indonesians were trafficked because they were recruited from Indonesia to the Philippines to work as customer service representatives (CCR). Unfortunately, they ended up at a POGO center named New World Group in Clark, Angeles City, Bangbanan Province," NBI personnel Agapito Gierran and Bienvenido Panican stated in the affidavit.
"On June 24, the illegal operation moved again to another location, specifically in a four-story building at No. 23 Mango Green [Village] Division, A.S. Fortuna Street," the affidavit stated, escaping the three cities.
According to a separate affidavit by Alona Capil Bautista, one of the administrators of the Cebu POGO hub, dated September 2, their scam operations originated from Lucky South 99 in Polac, Bangbanan Province.
Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Committee (PAOCC) spokesperson Winston Casio also confirmed on the TeleRadyo Serbisyo broadcast on September 4 that these operations came from Lucky South 99. Bautista is a resident of Tarlac City and began working as an administrator at Lucky South 99 on April 23, 2024. The administrator's task was to purchase supplies and other needs for the foreigners belonging to her "team."
According to Bautista, she purchased personal items for these hired foreigners because, according to their CEO Thwe Thwe San, they were not allowed to leave the premises of Lucky South 99.
In Polac, the executive learned that the company manager's name was someone named Jojo, whose Chinese name was "Xiao Long," which she heard. Bautista claimed that Xiao Long had other partners, namely Barbatos, DZ, Ba Hao, and Feayang.
Bautista said that they moved to Cebu after their previous workplace in Polac was raided on June 3.
"Just before our workplace in Polac was raided, our employer received a tip-off about the impending raid, so we were hurriedly brought to a hotel, where we stayed for five days," the executive's testimony read.
According to Bautista, her team leader Jordan promised that if she agreed to go to Cebu with the rest of the team, she would be paid. On the night of June 8 or 9, at least 20 people flew together on a Philippine Airlines flight from Bangbanan to Cebu.
Jordan is the nickname of Chinese national Ron Mou Ke, according to the NBI, who is one of the 16 foreigners charged with human trafficking. The list also includes Thwe Thwe San and Zhao Long.
"After arriving in Cebu, we were taken to the LMSK building in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City, where other workers (members of another team) were also brought. Initially, about 200 workers from Polac were brought to Cebu. We stayed there for about three weeks," Bautista said. Five days later, the team worked daily from 11 AM to 11 PM on the fifth floor of the LMSK building, using the phones given to them in Polac. Bautista narrated that after three weeks, the company's operations moved to Mango Green Village on Marn Island.
Two weeks later, the workers were moved to another residential building near Pacha De Mactan in Barangay Soong, Lapu-Lapu City.
"When the bosses learned about the raid that took place in Mango Green Village on July 22, the non-Filipino workers were moved to another location near Robinsons Galleria in Cebu City. The Filipino workers stayed at Pacha De Mactan," Bautista said.
The administrator confirmed that on August 2, the foreign workers were moved to the Tourist Garden Hotel in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City.
