CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Two suspected members of a human smuggling syndicate operating in Central Luzon were arrested by Pampanga Criminal Investigation and Detection Team (PCIDT) and four teenagers were rescued during an entrapment and rescue operations in Barangay Dau, Mabalacat, Pampanga, police said Monday.

Reports reaching the office of Senior Superintendent Marvin Bolabola, regional chief of the 3rd Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (3rd CIDG), said the suspects were identified as Rene Lapira Villapan, 42, and Elvira Cunanan Villapana, 42, both of Block 5, Barangay San Manuel, Tarlac City.

Seized from the suspects were a blue four-door Honda City (WTC-130), believed used in the transporting victims from Quezon City and Bulacan.

The suspects are now detained at the Pampanga Provincial Jail while violation of Republic Act 9208, also known as the Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act of 2003, was filed against them.

The names of the rescued minors were withheld and were taken to the Department of Social Welfare and Development provincial office for custody.

Bolabola said the two suspects were arrested during the intensified operation against human trafficking and rescue operations led by Chief Inspector Randy Glenn Silvio, provincial chief of the Pampanga CIDT.

Silvio said the suspects were about to transport the minors to Tarlac City to work as guest relations officers (GROs) or entertainers in a bar reportedly owned by a certain “Pong” when the operation took place.

Silvio said the minors were recruited by the suspects in separate places in Quezon City and nearby Bulacan and were promised decent and high-paying jobs in Tarlac City.

He said the victims, ages 14 to 17, were separately fetched in a designated area in Quezon City and Bulacan before heading toward Barangay Dau bus terminal in Mabalacat town.