The ‘Central Luzon Daily’ has provided an update on the raids conducted on four Balibago clubs the other night. It seems that some 80 comely wenches in total were lifted from Doll House, Dirty Duck, Honky Tonk and Gobbles – which the CLD named as ‘Boogles’ in an early story – during an age and identity check. On first glance it seems 12 were under age, and these are being checked. Most of those nabbed were expected to be released by today.
I still don’t understand why, after the permits needed to work in the various nightclubs around town, minors manage to fall through the cracks. Surely if City Hall issues licenses to those working in the bars it is unfair to arrest an employee of the bar who hires a girl with a legitimate license. It’s obvious to me that the issuing office bears responsibility for providing a license to an under age person.Any individual or company that hires an employee on the strength of that license must, by definition, be blameless. Diba?
Like almost everything in the Philippines these raids are becoming a farce. This is not the first time the Dirty Duck has been raided, it seems to be a perennial favourite of the raiders. Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
Quote: “The entertainment industry in Angeles City, sources said, is the biggest contributor of revenue, at last 40 percent, to the city coffer in terms of tax and business permits”. Unquote. I suspect if these raids continue, City Hall may soon be searching for alternative revenue sources.
Sources: Central Luzon Daily; J.C. at Margarita Updates
Three nightclubs and bars in Angeles City were raided earlier this week.
The Angeles City based non-government organisation, the “Crusade Against Good Custom and Decency International”, a group campaigning against sex tourism, is believed to be behind the action. The raid was conducted by the “Criminal Detection and Investigation Group” (CIDG), of the Philippine National Police and led by Superintendent Emma Lubiano from the “Women and Childrens Desk” of the CIDG.
Terence John Smith, manager of the Sunshine Bar was arrested along with Christopher Tan of the Blue Nile. These dudes and around 70 young women were taken to Camp Crame in Manila for questioning. Many of the women “kept cursing us and tried their best to escape,” said Supt. Lubinao. Smith is believed to have been charged with human trafficking and, if convicted, faces a lengthy spell behind bars.
Richard Agnew was not present at the time of the raid on the Golden Nile but is expected to be charged with human trafficking.
The Department of Justice has asked that the three bars raided be issued with Closure Notices by the Department of Labor and Employment.
AC Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said, “That is why I keep on reminding bar owners to observe and comply with national laws and local ordinances concerning their operations to avoid these incidents of raids conducted by the national law enforcement agencies.”
Pamintuan stressed that his administration will continue to cooperate with law enforcement agencies and begin to implement a more sustainable program at improving and ridding Fields Avenue of human trafficking and sex trade.
“This will include a total revision of the physical and business outlook of Fields Avenue as a legitimate and wholesome tourist destination,” Pamintuan said.
Pamintuan emphasized the need for the city’s tourism plan to gain full support from the businessmen and other stakeholders.
“In light of the close scrutiny on the entertainment strip, it becomes all the more necessary to concretize the transformation of Fields Avenue into a wholesome district filled with bars and restaurants and with a controlled area for adult entertainment,” he said.
Among his first official acts as mayor, Pamintuan issued Executive Order No. 13 on July 23, 2010 creating the Angeles City Task Force Against Human Trafficking which provides the regulatory and enforcement infrastructure and the social, moral and economic rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking.
To help curb human trafficking in Angeles City, the city government will come up with an ordinance setting minimum age of women working in night clubs to 21 years.
Pamintuan also called for an organization of night club and entertainment industry workers and establishment owners for the purpose of policing their own ranks and strict implementation of local regulations on business permits, licenses and tax payments.
COMMENT
Even though prostitution is illegal in the Philippines it is ubiquitous. In my experience no foreign bar owner or manager will sanction the employment of under age or unwilling girls as waitresses, cashiers, dancers or GROs. They rely on the integrity of the City Hall licensing system that is supposed to ensure that anyone engaged in the sex trade is of legal age. Surely if anyone is to blame for under-age girls being employed it is those at City Hall who issue the licenses or those who provide, what I assume must be, false documentation to the girls that enables them to find employment in the industry. I do, however, welcome the mayor’s suggestion that the minimum age of workers in the industry be raised to 21.
sources: JC at Margarita Station Update, Philippine Star, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Standard, www.acgovt.com.ph
Popped into The Blind Beggar yesterday afternoon to check out this new bar on Don Juico, beside the lane leading to the Sydney Hotel. It’s a medium sized bar with an adequate dance stage and a pool table nestled into a back alcove. The dancers were nothing special, but it’s early days yet. The walls have been generously hung with pictures of some of England’s more notorious villains from round about the 1960s, the stools, chairs and sofas, (from Sundaze Lifestyle Furniture), were comfortable and the music selection is quite good, although too loud for easy conversation and there’s reasonable parking outside. While it’s too early to tell how successful it will be, much of the speculation is about how the partnership between Big Bill and Harro will fare over time. Certainly there was a good turn out yesterday, so that’s a positive start.
Downed a few swift ones with Clyde at After School. This is a neat bar with an evocative name that I hadn’t been to before. There weren’t many dancers but their costumes and routines are a break from the ordinary and it may well become a bar we visit again. I imagine there’s no afternoon happy hour at After School as our beers were P85 each. After School is in the strip with Roadies and Lost In Asia, near the Clarkton Hotel.
THE BLIND BEGGAR, a new bar on Don Juico Avenue, (beside the laneway to the Sydney Hotel), is due to open on Monday, April 4.
The Blind Beggar will boast a large dance area, a DJ and the normal facilities expected of a bar here, but as of yesterday was a long way from being finished.
Decorations include photos and memorabilia from The Blind Beggar Hotel, a pub in London’s Whitechapel district. Popular with many East End villains of the time, the hotel gained notoriety in 1966 when Ronnie Kray shot and killed George Cornell.
The Blind Beggar will open at noon, with Happy Hour prices until 6:00pm daily.
Archer is sorry to report the increasingly popular bar, The Winchester Club, is now closed. The Winchester was on the ground floor of the Hotel California in Malabañas Road, Hensonville and the closure has something to do with the paperwork. Hopefully it will be back in action before too long.
Just when I had almost decided that each bar in Angeles was pretty much a clone of the others, I came across something different. I stumbled into Midnight Rock about 10:00 last Thursday night and found the ‘joint was a rolling and a rockin’, going round and round’ to quote Chuck Berry.
Rockin’ Dave Taylor, who owns/manages Midnight Rock, was pumping out rock and roll music on the piano with a flair and power that Jerry Lee Lewis would be proud of. The music from the 50s and early 60s that led the rock rebellion was so familiar, and Dave’s flamboyance on the keyboard so mesmerizing, I couldn’t get enough of it. I missed girls in their wide skirts and multi-layered petticoats, bobby sox and flat soled pink shoes jiving all round the place but I guess you can’t have everything in this life.
And if you should ever doubt Dave’s ability or his authenticity, don’t. Dave has toured with Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, B.B. King and the real Shakin’ Stevens as well as having a successful solo career. The man knows his stuff and puts on a great show every Thursday night from 8:00.
Get yourself down to Midnight Rock on Don Juico Avenue/Perimeter Road one Thursday and soak up the music from a kinder, gentler age. You won’t be sorry.
