Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. said one of the five suspects, all female, actually managed to return to Manila but agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested her upon her arrival.
The suspect is undergoing preliminary investigation at the Department of Justice after two of her victims who returned from Kuwait surfaced and filed their formal complaint.
Conejos said the four other suspects are in jail along with the five Bangladeshi nationals, who were said to be the ringleaders of the prostitution ring.
The victim is undergoing treatment in a Kuwaiti hospital for a fracture on spinal column and neck she suffered during her attempt to escape from her abductors on Nov. 4.
As a matter of policy, Conejos said they wouldn't be disclosing the names of the five suspects as they are "also OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers) that we need to protect."
"But we will be using our legal assistance funds to prosecute them," Conejos assured. He pointed out that they have filed a note verbale to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait stating the Philippine government's intention to help prosecute the nine suspects. He added they have also asked the Kuwaiti officials not to deport the Bangladeshi suspects until the completion of the trial.
The teenaged domestic worker ran away from her employers in Jabriyah after being enticed by one of the Filipina suspects to work for a better- paying job in a restaurant. The victim was instructed to ride a taxicab waiting outside her employer's apartment.
It turned out that the taxi was driven by one of the Bangladeshi suspects who took her to another apartment in Kheitan. The victim was then passed on to other Bangladehis who gang-raped her.
Conejos said that other victims of the white slavery rings informed them that the suspects would kidnap women in the streets even in broad daylight. "We're coming up with an information campaign to alert our Filipina workers about the activities of these groups," Conejos said.
