This article contains descriptions of sexual exploitation of children, which some readers may find distressing.
In July 2021, a Christian organization that has dedicated itself to fighting child sex trafficking launched an undercover operation in Olongapo, a city northwest of Manila in the Philippines. Destiny Rescue informants had identified a woman they said was trafficking children for sex, and set out to stop her.
Alina was one of the children targeted by the intelligence operation. She was 13 years old and trapped in prostitution.
“Our parents can no longer support us,” Alina told DW. “I needed money for my everyday life.”
One night in July 2021, Alina said she and others were picked up on the street by two men who introduced themselves as Nico and Brian. They took them to a restaurant, then to a hotel.
Alina said, “After he took bath, I also took bath.” “Then this happened.” She said Nico paid her 2,000 Philippine pesos, which is equivalent to €34.
About two weeks later, another girl named Reyna, aged 16, said she was introduced to the same two men and a third man and taken to a hotel for sex.
The girls did not know at the time that they were the subjects of a surveillance operation, and that the people they say had abused them were informants working undercover for Destiny Rescue.
The names of both girls have been changed to protect their privacy.
exposing suspected abuse
Destiny Rescue is one of many Christian charities whose mission is to rescue children from sex trafficking. In 2024 alone, it raised €12 million, mainly from donations in the United States and Australia.
DW’s investigative unit traveled to the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand to explore how people working for a child rescue organization allegedly used the group as a cover to gain access to vulnerable minors for exploitation.
We interviewed survivors, insiders, law enforcement officials and child trafficking experts, and obtained confidential documents, court records and public files that reveal how rescue operations operated outside the law and put children at risk in the name of rescue – and in at least one case provided cover for suspected abuse.
cases of extreme exploitation
According to a 2023 study by the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab and the International Justice Mission, an estimated half a million Filipino children are trapped in sexual exploitation.
“Most of the issues related to human trafficking are rooted in poverty,” said Rebecca Knapp, senior technical advisor for the Better Care Network, an initiative of several leading children’s rights organizations that promotes ethical standards in dealing with vulnerable children.
“If your family is experiencing poverty or other forms of crisis, which is often exacerbated by natural disasters, displacement, other forms of discrimination or marginalization, this will contribute to trafficking,” the NHEP told DW. “And all of these things together create risks and vulnerabilities that can be exploited by traffickers who want to recruit children.”
Due to budget constraints, Philippine law enforcement agencies often rely on child rescue groups such as Destiny Rescue to combat child trafficking in the country.
“Would you believe it could actually cost 200,000 pesos (€3,000) to save a child?” Maria Sheila T. Portento, acting head of the Philippine National Police’s Women and Children’s Protection Center, told DW.
Raid on pool party raises suspicion
Destiny Rescue’s Olongapo operation unfolded on August 4, 2021 with a dramatic raid at a luxury seaside resort. Alina and Reyna were among several girls invited to a pool party hosted by Nico and Brian.
“They said we were just going to swim there and drink wine,” Alina said.
Nico, whom she said had paid her for sex just a few weeks earlier, was by the pool.
Then, the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided the pool party.
Reyna said, “Since we dispersed and got separated, they chased us. We ran away out of fear.” “I was afraid I might go to jail and that my parents would find out what happened.”
With towels over their heads, the girls were taken to the local NBI office, where they were told that they had been rescued – and that they had been under surveillance for months. The girls then realized that Nico and Brian were part of a rescue mission.
The girls say they felt cheated.
“They used us, paid us,” Reyna said. “If this is their way of explaining it to customers, then it is ironic that they ‘help us’ but also use us.”
But Alina and Reyna were not yet aware of the group behind the surveillance operation.
behind the surveillance campaign
Questions about the men’s identities were first raised by Filipino social activist Jacob Santos, who asked that their real names not be used for privacy reasons. When the victims reached Preda Home for Girls, a shelter for exploited children, he talked to them.
“Two girls told me that agents sexually assaulted them,” Santos told DW. “They asked me if they could file charges against the agents as well.”
Santos said he requested official case files from authorities, in which he found an intelligence sent by Destiny Rescue to the NBI announcing the surveillance mission. It named Alina as the victim and included details that Nico had previously asked her for, including her name, age and address.
Seeking answers, Santos and several other Preda staff members set up a meeting with the Destiny Rescue manager. Santos said the manager then called a Destiny Rescue agent, who reportedly confirmed that abuse had occurred.
Santos said, “He hired people, so-called informants, to gather intelligence. And this informant confirmed, they went to a hotel and had sex with one of the girls.”
A few days after the collision, Destiny Rescue sent a letter to the Philippine National Police, admitting that there had been “violations of rescue protocols” during its Olongapo operation.
DW obtained the confidential letter, which describes an “anonymous informant” who was “involved in indecent acts with a minor.”
“In our own investigation, we have seen verbal confirmation of the incident, which allegedly occurred when the informant suffered a life-threatening condition,” the Destiny Rescue letter said.
It is unclear what the “life-threatening situation” was. DW asked Destiny Rescue to clarify the matter, but the organization did not respond.
facing destiny rescue
In Australia, DW presented the facts of the case to Geoff Harrison, chief operating officer of Destiny Rescue Ltd. He stressed that the organization is determined to have “good structure, good training, good accountability.”
But, when confronted with Destiny Rescue’s own confidential letter admitting the alleged abuse, Harrison said it appeared that the operation’s “intelligence people” had recruited an informant who “had done the wrong thing.”
“It’s entirely possible that you found someone who was giving them information, and then they recruited their friend to be part of the raid,” Harrison said.
“It seems like something went wrong.”
seeking justice
Elena and Reyna filed criminal complaints against the suspected perpetrators, as well as the Philippine managers of Destiny Rescue.
A prosecutor from the Philippine Department of Justice investigated the case and found two informants “probably guilty of using a trafficked person.”
Both are still absconding.
In the same motion, the prosecutor dismissed the complaints against the two Destiny Rescue managers, saying: “Nothing on the record shows that they took any direct action to contribute to the completion of the crime committed by their alleged agents.”
Based on this decision, Destiny Rescue publicly claimed that “allegations involving Destiny Rescue’s involvement in the abuse of minors have been resolved and dismissed” by the prosecutor.
final formula
Only one person was prosecuted after the Destiny Rescue operation: a 20-year-old woman named Monica was convicted of trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.
DW interviewed him in a prison in Manila. She confirmed key details in the testimony of Alina and Reyna. She said Nico and Brian had made efforts to win her trust before the raid.
“They passed by my house and gave me food, alcohol and money,” Monica told DW. “I suspected they were doing something to catch me.”
Crucially, she said Nico and Brian gave her marked bills during the last poolside raid, which she said she did not take. She claims that she is innocent and has never worked as a trafficker, but has been a sex worker herself.
Together, Destiny Rescue’s own admissions in confidential documents, combined with testimony from victims and convicted traffickers, establish that it was Destiny Rescue that ran the operation in Olongapo, where informants are suspected of abusing underage victims of trafficking.
no justice no peace
Reyna is now 21 years old, has a child of her own and is completing her studies. She said she was grateful to be removed from prostitution, but she wanted action taken against the men, that they “be jailed, lose their jobs, jail them so they can no longer molest children.”
Alina, now 17, is concerned that the suspects who abused her remain at large.
“I feel nervous sometimes, because they might find us or do something to condone the matter,” Alina said. “I hope they are arrested so they can’t exploit any more children.”
Editor: Mathias Bollinger
Copy editing: Milan Gagnon
Fact Check By: Julia Baer
Legal support: Florian Wagenknecht