Anne and KC are two 15 year olds who were trafficked by their aunt when they were barely 14, with the promise of jobs at a restaurant in Manila. Drawn by the “glamour” of the city lights, the two went with Dada Nina and lived in an apartment somewhere in Quezon City and offered to men willing to pay the 10,000-peso price tag of a virgin.

We met them here in Samar where they told us the story of how they and many other young girls here were drawn by promises of free cell phones, a 3,000-peso per month salary and the possibility that they could help rescue their families from the poverty that surrounds them.

Indeed, amidst the lush greenery, fresh air and idyllic surroundings, you can see the poverty. In Anne’s family’s one room shack made of yero and wood, the dirt floor of the kitchen is bare, save for a triangular-shaped steel bar to hold a pot over some wood. On the sides, a few ears of dried corn, and three pineapples. I ask about where the food is, and her mother points to the dried corn. We are setting up our camera in this one room with nothing to sit on except the floor. I want to ask her mother about her bold attempt to have Anne rescued from the house where her “employer” held her captive.

Anne is now 15, her baby fat still on her. Earlier, we interviewed her while she sat on a bench with her feet not quite touching the ground. Despite her young age, Anne impresses me as a fighter who had the smarts to get the message to her mother to rescue her. She told us she willingly went with the sweet-talking recruiter. When I asked her why she easily believed what she was told, she said that Dada Nina was an aunt of hers and she had no reason not to trust her word. Once in Manila, they were locked up in an apartment and only let out when there was a call from a client. She was not allowed to go out on the first week because according to them, they had to “whiten” her dark skin by making her take a bath everyday. After a week, she was taken to a hotel by someone and led to a room where a client was waiting. The incident traumatized her and she was determined to escape the job she had not bargained for.

She dared to pack the few clothes she had and sent it to her mother thru her recruiter on the pretext that she did not need the clothes anymore. Inside the folds, she slipped in a note to her mother detailing the address of her whereabouts with specific marks like the color of the gate and other details she took note of when she was allowed outside. To satisfy the requirement that any note they wrote had to be “censored” by the women that stood guard over them, she wrote another note saying she was fine and not to worry about her, which she then handed to them.

Back in their hut in Samar, Aling Virgie went through the clothes and found Anne’s note. She sought the help of NGO groups working to help trafficked children. Anne was captive for just three weeks before she was rescued. When you talk to her now, she does not look like she bears the scars of her experience.

Neither does KC who was there for eight months. But I wonder if KC, who is a few months younger than Anne, might go back after earning the money she and those like her, can only dream of. Unlike KC, Anne did not receive a single cent for the abuse she endured. The pricelist for their services goes from a premium of 10,000 pesos to rock-bottom fees of 100 for a quick trick and 150 for an overnight stay. To up the ante for their services, they also told me about “fake virgins.” Their handlers devised ways to trick their clients by using the blood from doves to simulate bleeding.

As we walked down the roadside passing by houses that stood side by side, one NGO worker pointed each one out saying, “dito, isa” and at the next hut, “dito, tatlo” and so on down the line until we counted seven from that short row of houses. So far, it is only Anne and KC that have come back home.