ROSE

Rose is a seven-year-old female who was rescued, along with her two younger siblings, 15 days ago in a village in Cebu City after being sexually exploited by Annie (Rose’s mother) online. The police ensured that a child-friendly forensic interview was conducted after the operation, Rose and her two siblings are currently residing in a private crisis shelter.

The abuse began a year after Ryan (Rose’s father) left to work abroad. Annie spent more time on the computer and often had Rose come over to “say hello” to many different foreign men on the screen. Annie told her that while Papa was away she would need her help to take care of the family. Rose was instructed to undress in front of the computer. Her sister, Abigail, began posing with Rose for some customers. On many occasions Rose was instructed to touch her own or her sister’s genitals after undressing. The instructions were always given by Annie. Vanessa (Rose’s paternal grandmother) was never present during these shows which was also validated by Rose during the interview. Rose said that Annie instructed her not to report to Vanessa because “otherwise I will be taken away by the police and you will not have a mother anymore”. Vanessa, as well as her other family in the village claimed to have not known about the online exploitation.

Prior to the police intervention, Rose lived in a home with Vanessa, Annie, and two younger siblings. Rose’s aunt, uncle and four cousins live in the same village. Her younger sister, Abigail, is six and her younger brother, Felix, is five. Ryan is a contract worker in Kuwait working as a machine operator who earns 80,000 PHP a month while Annie is a fulltime housewife. Ryan has been in Kuwait almost two years; he left soon after Felix (her younger brother) was born. Ryan sends 40,000 PHP to the family each month but does not communicate to them frequently. When he heard of the rescue and arrest of the Annie, Ryan expressed desire to return to Cebu; however, is not able to do so, because otherwise he will be charged with breach of contract.

Vanessa is 52 years old. She is in good health and is very good at cooking. She has been selling home-cooked meals and delivering them in nearby offices during lunch time and in the afternoon. She said she has been earning roughly 4,000 a week from this. She said she has been saving money monthly in her savings account for emergency purposes.

According to the neighbors, Vanessa has been very supportive to her grandchildren. They said that she always wants what is best for her grandchildren and sometimes, she gives them too much that will cost them to become hard headed. Rose said that Vanessa has been a good and supportive grandmother towards her. She said that she always runs towards Vanessa for help when Annie would scold her. Vanessa has been teaching her to do simple cooking and she also helps her pack the food that Vanessa is delivering every day.

When Vanessa was asked to identify and contact safe individuals in the community and the justice system, she was able to identify the case manager and the barangay kagawad who is always checking up on their family regularly for their needs and problems. Vanessa does not know how to use smart phones she only uses her old keypad phone because she said her only reason for having a phone is to communicate with her costumers. When she wants to communicate with her son, Ryan in Kuwait, she usually asks Annie to contact Ryan through her smart phone.

All of the household members appear to be in good health. When the shelter nurse checked the children’s BMI, they appeared to be normal and well nourished, though they have head lice which the shelter nurse has been treating by lice shampoo. Vanessa reported that when the children have been sick, Annie would immediately go to the Barangay Health Center and for emergency situations, they would immediately go to the hospital which is about 30 minutes away from their village.

Annie and Vanessa owned the house and the lot which they occupied. The house is made of galvanized iron and concrete walls with 3 rooms and 1 toilet and Vanessa indicated it is safe from any hazards. The family buy gallons of drinking water in a nearby water refilling station, and they have their own water connection from the Cebu City Water District.

Rose was calm as a baby, but there has been such a drastic change in her overall nature in the past year. Rose was the product of an uncomplicated, full-term pregnancy with no post-natal difficulties. She was physiologically healthy and her development was on track—she started crawling at six months, spoke her first words at ten months, and started walking at twelve months. Although she cried a lot as a child, she was able to self-soothe and usually puts herself to sleep. As a child, Rose was described as a very happy, typically complains yet pleasant.

Annie was able to enroll Rose with all the necessary documents (baptismal certificate and live birth) in the public elementary school which is 15 minutes away from their house. But Rose appears to struggle both socially and academically. She has significant difficulty focusing during class and isolates from other children. Rose initiates arguments and gets easily angry when teased with classmates, though is very obedient towards her teachers. When asked if she likes school Rose reports that she does not like it because she “is not smart.”

According to Shelter staff, in the crisis shelter, Rose interacts minimally with the other children and house parents. Her primary interactions are with her siblings, Abigail and Felix and also her close friend Karrie who is the same age as her. Rose has the tendency to isolate herself even when encouraged to play with the other children. When she does interact with other children she becomes easily frustrated and initiates arguments. She can often get very angry during these arguments and has become physically aggressive with other children twice. Some of the children in the shelter are afraid of her because of that and would refrain from getting into arguments with her. When Abigail, Felix or her friend Karrie are upset by other children or when they are bullied in some way, Rose often defends them and becomes very hostile to the other children. Though she does not frequently become physically aggressive, she does become very disobedient and oppositional towards the house parents. She has engaged in property destruction in the past during a bout of rage. When Rose calms down, she is usually very remorseful, especially towards the house parents, and is eager to obey and please them. After one of these episodes Rose often repeats that she is a bad child. House parents at the shelter have reported Rose waking up frequently from frightening dreams. Rose in unable to describe the dreams or provide content but has reported “they are very scary.”

Annie is in jail awaiting trial and has no contact with any of the children. Vanessa was able to see the children once and is availing counseling services and psychoeducation course. Vanessa has been very participative during the group psychoeducation sessions and appears to be interested in learning how to do positive disciplining. In one of the psychoeducation sessions, Vanessa said that she feels remorseful for what has happened to her grandchildren because she was not aware of the abuse, especially in observing the red flags of OSEC which was being facilitated by Annie. Vanessa has expressed a desire to have the children returned to her so that they can be discharged from the shelter and reintegrated into the community. Vanessa still lives in the home where the abuse occurred and would like the children to be reintegrated into that home. Although there have been no other reports of OSEC occurring in this village, the barangay kagawad has demonstrated concern for addressing this issue. There are a few services available in the community, including a local case manager who has been following the case and a child development program operated by a non-government organization for abandoned, neglected and abused children. Most other services provided are through the local health office.