An Angeles City court has thrown out five cases against a Japanese tourist accused of having sex with an underage girl.
As we reported in July, a Japanese tourist [who we have opted not to identify] was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old at a hotel near the Fields Avenue red light district.
However, it has now been announced that Judge Maria Angelica Paras-Quiambao, sitting at the Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 59, ordered his release earlier this month.
PLN has been in contact with the acquitted man to confirm his release and the dropping of all charges against him.
The judge said the court had no other recourse but to exonerate the tourist, as the information provided by Assistant City Prosecutor Mark Oliver Sison failed to establish that he had violated Republic Act 9208 (The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003).
The judge said that on August 7, the court directed Sison to submit additional evidence.
He failed to comply with the directive but on August 17 he was given a five-day extension to submit what the court required from him.
Confirming that the case against the Japanese national would be dismissed, the judge said: “The order dated August 7, 2017, bears warning on the dismissal of the case as to accused should Angeles City Prosecutor Sison fail to comply therewith… To this day, Assistant City Prosecutor Sison has not taken action on the said Order.”
The Japanese tourist had been charged along with four young Filipinas, who were accused of pimping underage girls.
In one of the pieces of information prepared by Sison against the tourist and his co-accused on July 28, it said that in July one of the female suspects offered a 14-year-old girl a job.
At about 1pm on July 21, the suspect called the victim and took her to the First Avenue Hotel.
In the hotel, the girl alleged that he paid 500 pesos to the alleged female pimp, and had sex with the girl, for which he paid her 1,000 pesos.
However, an older sister of the victim, who was waiting outside the room decided to report the Japanese tourist after hearing what had happened.
While he was being questioned at a police station, Sison claimed the suspecct’s phone received several text messages offering him underage girls for sex.
This prompted policemen to organise a sting operation that resulted in the arrest of the three alleged female pimps aged 17, 18 and 21.
Although the cases against the man have been thrown out, the cases against May Ann Abudo, Jessica Dimarucut, and the 17-year-old, who cannot be named, remain pending with the court. Arraignment and pre-trial sessions are set for October 17 and 26.