EDITORIAL - Drive vs human trafficking needs serious approach

The good news is that the woman long wanted for murder and several counts of human trafficking in Mindanao has finally been arrested. Liezyl Margallo fell into the hands of the National Bureau of Investigation operatives on Malapascua Island in northern Cebu on Wednesday.

However, many have wondered why it took the authorities two years to arrest Margallo, who has been facing at least 16 arrest warrants in Northern Mindanao. Malapascua Island in Daanbantayan town is just a boat ride away from mainland Cebu.   

The authorities have been going after the 23-year-old suspect since 2015 for a string of cases that included one relating to the murder of a 12-year-old girl, who was sexually abused and tortured to death. But it’s only been recently that she has been spotted savoring a relaxing life in Cebu. 

While the public hailed Margallo’s arrest as another victory in the battle against human trafficking and child sex, the authorities should have exerted an extensive effort for her speedy capture. That it took two years for her to finally fall to the authorities despite the fact she’s only been hiding in Cebu would only tell us that there’s something wrong with the way she was being hunted. 

Her immediate arrest could have prevented the death of the 12-year-old girl in Surigao City last year. The girl was reported to have been sexually molested and tortured by Margallo and her live-in partner, Australian pedophile Peter Gerard Scully, who was arrested by the NBI in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon in 2015.

We know that the government has been prioritizing the campaign against human smuggling and child sex following surveys ranking the Philippines as among the countries in the world with a very high prevalence of trafficking and child pornography.

Therefore, it is high time for our law-enforcement agencies to heighten their campaign if we want to show to the world that we are very serious in ridding the country of those pedophiles and other child predators.