Duterte defends rave party organizer on the verge of losing business permit
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Mayor Rodrigo Duterte came to the rescue of an embattled rave party organizer, whose license and permit were recommended for revocation by the Sangguniang Panlungsod (city council) on Tuesday.
“I will not allow anybody to stop the young from partying,” Mayor Rodrigo Duterte told reporters at the Seda Hotel here Wednesday evening.
Katrina Dalisay, owner of the rave party outfit Manic Nightings, started earning the ire of city councilors here after she called them “hypocrites” on her Facebook page.
Dalisay’s comment was in reaction to supposed sharp criticisms by councilors of skimpily clad teenagers joining rave parties held in the city.
On Tuesday, members of the city council grilled Dalisay and accused her of violating city ordinances, such as the liquor ban after midnight and the smoking ban. They alleged that she has not been paying the correct taxes.
City administrator Melchor Quitain, who testified before the session, said Dalisay even misdeclared the number of tickets sold during her events.
For three hours, Dalisay stood and regularly broke into tears before the city council.
Despite her profuse apology for calling city councilors “hypocrites,” the hostile city council recommended to the city mayor that her business permit be revoked and her special mayor’s permit for the Kadayawan Invasion rave event she planned for the upcoming Kadayawan, be denied.
After the three-hour questioning made under suspended rules, the city council passed a resolution recommending to the city mayor not to grant a special mayor’s permit to the organizer and to revoke her business permit to prevent her from holding similar gatherings.
But Duterte said the recommendations were too much. “Discipline her, yes, let her pay the right taxes but for God’s sake, give her another chance,” Duterte said of the recommendation.
Duterte said Dalisay had already apologized.
“As a mayor, I tell her to ask forgiveness, pay her taxes and start all over again,” Duterte said. “Now that she has apologized, what else do you want? It’s not good to kill the energy of the young,” he added.
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