TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol—Renato, 19, brought his four siblings from Cebu City to an orphanage here hoping to provide them a better home.

He said his parents agreed to send them to Street Kids Mission Philippines (SKMP) because they were too poor to feed the children and send them to school.

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On Saturday, Renato and his siblings were among 38 children who were rescued by the National Bureau of Investigation in Bohol from a two-story house in Barangay Bool, Tagbilaran.

An American couple, Matthew and Dalisay Dwinells, were arrested and face charges of violating the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

Cirena Sia, Tagbilaran City social worker, said the American missionaries didn’t have a permit to bring children to Bohol.

“They can’t even present a parent’s consent (paper),” said Sia.

Of the number, 28 are minors—15 girls and 13 boys who are mostly from Cebu. There was one child from Negros Oriental and two from Leyte province.

The children were first brought to Dauis town in Bohol in 2015 before they transferred to the two-story house in this city.

God’s work?

The Dwinells strongly denied allegations they were involved in human trafficking.

But they could present only a license to operate as an orphanage issued by the municipal government of Dauis in 2015, the year the orphanage started to operate.

The couple said they wanted to help the children by sending them to school.

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Dalisay said four of the wards are enrolled in college while the others are in elementary and high schools.

“We are trying to serve God. We’re trying to help children,” said Dalisay. “We are trying to bring bondage out of poverty, you know,” she said.

“It’s a very big surprise and disheartening to be treated like criminals,” she added.

Dalisay said she and her husband brought the children to Bohol since cost of living in the province is lower and it is a safe place to live in.

“The land is cheaper,” she said.

She added that she and her husband were advised by a psychologist to bring the children to a place far from sources of temptation “and they will change.”

SKMP, which was founded in February 2010, is one of the several ministries of the sect His Dwelling Church.

Long-term change

According to members, SKMP’s main goal is to bring long-term change in the lives of impoverished children living in the streets of Cebu City and other areas.

But it did not have a license to operate as a social welfare group from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Lawyer Rennan Augustus Oliva, head of the NBI in Bohol, said the regional office of the DSWD sought help from the NBI to rescue the children from the illegal orphanage.

The place being run by the Dwinells, said Sia, “has no authority to provide temporary shelter” to children.

The children lived in a two-story house rented by Lilie Ann Aba-Acal, 43, who also operates the Prayer Mountain Bohol, a training center for would-be pastors of the Dwinells’ sect.

Acal said she allowed the Dwinells and the children to stay with her since she thought it was a temporary arrangement.

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