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Presenting Situation
Maria is a six-year-old female who was rescued in San Fernando, Pampanga with her two teenage cousins 24 days ago as a result of online sexual exploitation. Police detected that they were being sexually exploited online by Jay Warner, a 40-year-old foreigner who was their neighbor. The attending social worker referred Maria for emergency foster care placement with a licensed foster parent in another city.
Abuse History
The online sexual exploitation began 1 year ago when Maria was 5 years old under the facilitation of Jay Warner. Jay is a foreign national who has lived next door to Bernette (Maria’s mother) for approximately 3 years. When Maria turned 5, Bernette decided she would Bernette denied her involvement in the crime, but investigations show that she was aware of Jay’s online activities with the two older victims, she would often drop her only child off to Jay’s home whenever she went to work. During the post rescue processing, Maria shared with the social worker that whenever her mother leaves her with Jay, she would often see Jay instructing her two cousins to take off their clothes while he was filming them. She also saw that Jay brings her cousins to another room to “chat” with his other foreigner friends abroad. Maria was also called over to take off her clothes and touch her private parts. According to her, she did not feel scared doing it because she was already used to seeing her cousins do the same thing and she could not say “No” to Jay.
Family Background
Prior to the rescue, Maria was residing with her mother (Bernette), maternal aunt (Sandra) and two cousins in San Fernando, Pampanga. Maria’s parents separated when she was three years old, and Bernette stated that she has not seen Maria’s father (Michael) since they separated. Bernette and her sister Sandra both work as permanent factory workers for six days a week and individually earns 14,000 a month. Since the children do not have any companions at home while their mothers are out to work, the two women arranged for their children to stay with their neighbor, Jay, whom they have met and befriended two years ago.
Bernette already noticed that her two nieces had allowances and new gadgets that they said were gifts from Jay for helping him out as bikini models in his ‘online business’. Despite them being minors, the two mothers permitted their activities since Jay is also giving them money.
According to the neighbors, Bernette manages their finances well because they observed that she is a hardworking factory worker and knows the value of hard-earned money as demonstrated by her prioritizing the basic needs and proper nutrition of the household over all other things. Which has also been validated because Bernette has a bank account which she is using to keep her savings.
According to the barangay officials, these OSEC activities are not new to the community because they had experienced assisting numerous OSEC survivors and their families in the past. The barangay also pledged to monitor Bernette since their house is just 2 blocks away from the Barangay. According to the case manager, they did not have any problems in collaborating with the BCPC because they have been proactive in the fight against OSEC.
Health & Safety
According to the Barangay Officials, the area which they reside is generally safe from flooding. Their house is also just a few kilometers away from the public hospital and 500 meters away from the public school. They owned the house and the lot that they have been occupying which is made of strong materials like galvanized iron and concrete walls with 2 rooms and 1 toilet. They are also buying gallons of drinking water in a nearby water refilling station and they have their own water connection from San Fernando Water District.
School Functioning & Developmental History
Maria was a sickly child from infancy to toddlerhood. Maria is observed to be shorter and lighter compared to the other children of her age. She is also observed to stammer when she speaks. Because of needing to work for a living, Bernette rarely had the time to teach and bond with Maria.
Maria was supposed to start pre-school last year but due to the pandemic and the community quarantine, her mother was not able to enroll her in school but the necessary documents (like birth certificate and baptismal certificate) for her enrolment has already been secured by Bernette. Upon initial testing, Maria is very delayed in her educational abilities. She is unable to read simple words and sentences. She also struggles to write, although is able to spell out her name.
Behavioural Functioning
According to Bernette, Maria acts very rowdy at home and lashes out on her mother whenever she is prohibited to go out to play with her friends. At home, she prefers to be alone and play with Bernette’s old cell-phone all day. Whenever she is about to be dropped off to Jay’s residence, she would be anxious and ask her mother if she can just stay at home or go with her to her work.
When she was brought to the emergency foster care placement proceeding the rescue, Maria was observed to be silent and indifferent towards her foster parents. She would only engage with them whenever they let her play with their gadgets. Her foster mother observed that whenever Maria is left alone in the room, she touches and plays with her private parts. She told the social worker that they are worried that their other children might see what Maria is doing and imitate her.
The foster mother also observed that whenever Maria sees her using their laptop, she would seem alert and stare intently at them as if waiting for instructions on what to do.
Placement Options
Jay was arrested and is now in jail while his legal case is being litigated. The police are still investigating the level of involvement of Maria’s mother and aunt in the OSEC activity of Jay. Upon initial interview with Bernette, she expressed that she wanted to get her child back, but she does not have a clear plan yet on how to protect and care for Maria while working for their means of living. She also said that she does not trust the police officers to pursue justice because of a prior experience that she had when she went to the police station to escort her friend to report a crime and they were shunned by the authorities. When she was informed that OSEC has a significant negative psychological and developmental effect on children, she appeared surprised. She claimed to believe that, because Maria was still young, she would forget about the abuse when she was older.
Bernette does not know the whereabouts of her ex-husband, Michael, and his relatives. The nearest kin that Maria has is her maternal uncle, Alfred, who resides in Mindoro. Little is known about Alfred and his willingness and capacity to care for Maria. Maria, on the other hand, never met her maternal uncle yet and is unsure if she wants to live with him.
The foster carers are willing to become long-term carers and provide care for Maria, however they live in Novaliches, Quezon City which is quite far for the mother to travel if she wants to visit. The foster carers also have not undergone any training in providing long-term care for children. They also have not received any training in how to care for a survivor of OSEC.
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