Makati now a sin city

I received several text messages about Saturday’s column which was headlined, “Corrupt exec gets high trust rating.”

“Mukhang si _______ ang subject mo sa column mo ngayon. Maraming pang kulang sa sinabi mo (It seems blank blank is the subject of your column today. You omitted a lot of things about him),” read one texter.

Another message sender, a high government official during the Cory Aquino administration, said:,“In your column today why is it that my mind leads me to______ as d person you are referring to?”

But the most striking reaction I received came from a friend of the politician.

Said the politician’s friend, whose identity I’m keeping secret: “Mon, i read ur column today. U are absolutely correct about this politician. I know him personally. He has a very good public image indeed. And that’s why I told u that unless he makes a major booboo, he will be__________.”

I told the friend of this politician that the public will eventually find out about what he has been up to.

That’s as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

It’s like someone not knowing about his or her partner’s infidelity because nobody dares to tell him or her. But eventually, it will all be out in the open.

* * *

What did I say in Saturday’s “On Target” column?

Basically, that the politician and his family are rich—filthy rich.

They are engaged in buying real estate in the city where they live. The family owns a big chunk of the city.

Condominium developers and owners of business establishments complain that the family demands a unit or two before a condominium is built, apart from a portion of the business, without spending a single centavo.

They have a huge farm in a province near Metro Manila where they own a huge farm complete with a vast man-made lake, a multimillion-peso orchid garden, and an air-conditioned pigpen.

You want a clue? They are a family of politicians.

* * *

Many years ago, Pasay City and Manila were considered “sin cities,” where prostitution dens masquerade as night clubs and bars.

In Manila, street walkers openly offered sex to pedestrians on Misericordia Street in Binondo and Mabini Street.

A strip of land called “Banana Island” on Highway 54 (now
Edsa) in Pasay City was a favorite hangout of college students because of cheap sex that took place inside a cluster of huts.

Those places are no more.

Pasay and Manila have handed over the title of “Sin City” to Makati City.

Burgos Street in Makati is the city’s red light district.

Every night, the place comes alive as a row of bars with girls as young as 15 years old lure passing foreign tourists to their joints in the guise of offering them rounds of beer.

There are also striptease joints which locals avoid because the women are only for foreigners who go for “exotic” beauties.

Hotels that receive short-time occupancy have sprouted on Burgos and nearby streets to receive one-night-only lovers.

I wonder why Mayor Junjun Binay allows prostitution to flourish in his city.