MANILA Philippines – Police arrested an American yoga instructor for tapping Filipina minors to reenact sex scenes from the popular movie Fifty Shades of Grey, the Philippine National Police (PNP) announced on Thursday, October 26.

A US social media provider alerted the Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) under the US Departrment of Homeland Security (DHS) that Robinson Alderman planned to sexually exploit children in the Philippines. 

The HSI relayed the information to Philippine police, who arrested Alderman  upon his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on October 15.

Before Alderman arrived in Manila, he already booked 3 girls – two aged 15 and a 14-year-old, according to Senior Superintendent Villamor Tuliao, PNP Women and Children’s Protection Center (WCPC) Anti-Human Trafficking Division chief.

“Through the HSI referral, the PNP-WCPC learned that the middle-aged man had plans, targetting young, poor, and even homeless Filipino girls for sexual exploitation,” Tuliao said.

The middle-aged American planned to recreate scenes from the erotic drama with his victims.

Tuliao added that they suspect that Alderman booked the girls to make pornographic videos for distribution.

Police confiscated sex toys paraphernalia, laptops, and other e-gadgets from Alderman.

Tuliao said that while Alderman failed to have the girls perform sexual acts, his act of booking them for that purpose was enough to charge him with violation of the Anti-Human Trafficking Law.

The WPCS said in a statement that Alderman’s communication with one of the victims showed that the transactions included “procuring, hiring and obtaining a minor for the purpose of pornography,” in violation of the law.

Alderman was detained in the PNP headquarters, Camp Crame, in Quezon City, as he faced charges before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“He will be tried sa offense niya dito and then after maserve ang sentence niya, saka siya ituturnover sa authorities sa US (for his offense here and after he serves his sentence, he would be turned over to US authorities),” Tuliao told reporters.

Victims in Visayas  

Meanwhile, 7 victims of online sexual abuse were found in Cordova town in Cebu during an operation on Tuesday, October 24.  

Three of the identified victims were rescued after being exploited while the other 4 who were at the crime scene were taken for assessment, to check if they were also victims of abuse. Two of the victims were as young as two years old while one of them was forced by her own parents to engage in the cybersex trade. 

Earlier this week, PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa himself noted that authorities’ preoccupation with the war on drugs and the terror threat might have made them focus less on the exploitation of Filipino children.

“Andami na pala nating mga bata na minors na naging biktima dito sa ganitong kaso. Dahil sa busy sa war on drugs, terrorism, hindi natin natutukan na ‘yung sarili nating mga bata; infant na ginagamit sa exploitation. So ito ngayon tutukan natin,” he said during the PNP’s flag raising ceremony earlier this week. 

(There are so many minors who are victimized by these cases. We have been busy in the war on drugs, terrorism, that we were not able to focus on our own children, even infants, who are used for exploitation. So now, we will target this.)

The WCPC is currently in partnership with IJM and the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP Office) in the conduct of its operations. – with a report from Patty Pasion/Rappler.com