The MoU was signed by the Norwegian Police Commissioner Benedicte Bjørnland and the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation Director Judge Jaime B. Santiago (Ret.). The MoU envisions to strengthen the collaborative efforts in information sharing and further enhance bilateral cooperation between Norway and the Philippines in combating sexual crimes and abuse of children most especially the field Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC).
National Police Comissioner Benedicte Bjørnland (left) and Philippine National Bureau of Investigation Director Judge Jaime B. Santiago (right) shows the newly signed MOU for stronger cooperation between Norway and the Philippines in combatting OSAEC
“This MOU highlights and strengthens the great cooperation over many years between the Philippines and Norway in the fight against OSAEC. The establishment of the Nordic Liaison Office (NLO Manila) at the Norwegian Embassy in March 2020 and the newly signed MoU underscore our commitment to combating OSAEC in the Philippines, Norway and the other Nordic Countries.” says H.E. Ambassador Christian Halaas Lyster, Norway’s ambassador to the Philippines.
NLO Manila’s presence in the Philippines shows Norway and the other Nordic countries’ commitment to actively engage and assist both Philippine and Nordic authorities on law enforcement. NLO Manila and its Philippine counterparts are focused on four key areas of cooperation: prevention and advocacy, prosecution and law enforcement, protection and reintegration of children, and partnership and networking. “This is an agreement we have worked systematically over time to put in place. The agreement with NBI in the Philippines provides a mutual opportunity to share intelligence that will strengthen the opportunities to prevent and investigate live ordered abuse and other forms of sexual offences against children," says National Police Commissioner General Benedicte Bjørnland. Since the establishment of NLO Manila office in March 2020, the cooperation has assisted in approximately 185 sexual offences cases between the Nordic countries and the Philippines.
On a separate press statement released by the NBI last November 14, 2024, Director Santiago said that the MOU with the Norwegian Police Service is very timely to fight the rapid and accelerating global problem of high incidence of exploitation of women and children.
Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation against children (OSAEC)
For several years, the Norwegian police have spent considerable resources investigating Norwegian perpetrators who order live- streamed abuse and images from the Philippines. The National Criminal Investigation Service has played a key role in this work. As the threat of OSAEC has expanded in terms of quantity and severity. Offenders continue to take advantage of legal and criminal privacy services to mask their actions, locations, the infrastructure of their operations and identities using various software and data encryption to shield their communication while their victims suffer repeated revictimization both online and offline. The production of child sexual abuse and exploitation materials (CSAEM) produced by offenders are in fact shared at many levels with other perpetrators and by those who receive them resulting in the same materials being encountered by investigators over many years.
Based on the recent study released by the Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) last October 23, 2024 a report on direct order-based sexual abuse and exploitation of children. It has been estimated that in the past year, somewhere between 400 and 2,000 Norwegian men who have ordered child abuse materials, and that the Philippines appears to be one of the preferred source. However, according to Kristin Kvigne, the head of the National Criminal Investigation Service "We are now taking a new step in the work to protect Filipino children from Norwegian abusers. Through the development of new methods and specific investigations, we have increased the risk of detection by ordering abuse of Filipino children. Now we are tightening our grip further,".
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on April 25, 2024, condemned OSAEC and all its forms in the strongest terms and mobilized the administration to intensify the fight on this borderless and hidden crime. The Nordic Embassies also commend the Philippine Government on enacting the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 11930, “Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials (CSAEM) Act”