Kuerks a favorite hangout for students

Cheap beer and live bands on weekends make Kuerks Bar in downtown Cebu City a favorite hangout for students.

The restobar where 16-year-old customer Jan Niño Pogoy was bashed in the head during a Sunday dawn melee that involved Cebu City Councilor Gerry Carillo was found to have an expired business permit and no license to serve liquor.

The reason: The bar is located within 100 meters from several universities and schools, a violation of a Cebu city ordinance.

The bar’s practice of serving liquor to minors was monitored and confirmed, said Lucelle Mercado, chairman of the City Anti-Indecency Board (CAIB), yesterday.

She said a closure order was about to be signed by the mayor after Sunday’s violent commotion, a dawn rumble among youngsters which Carillo, claimed he tried to pacify since he was nearby “eating pizza”.

Carillo was identified by at least four witnesses as the one who struck the teenager on the head with a rock, but the councilor has denied it.

The bar on Pelaez Street whose owner is listed as Richard Aznar had been the subject of frequent complaints regarding its noise levels and underage customers who were served liquor, said Mercado.

“We will send them a letter inviting them to present their side on Wednesday next week,” Mercado told Cebu Daily News.

Mercado said a check of its papers in City Hall showed the bar had no updated business permit for this year.

Its permit to sell and serve liquor was disapproved last year by the Liquor Licensing Commission because the bar is within 100 meters of several academic schools. No special permit was granted by Mayor Michael Rama.

The bar is frequented by students from the nearby University of Cebu and University of San Carlos, and attracts those from other schools because of its affordable beer.

“We go there during breaks and after school,” said Jennifer Bolotaolo, a 4th year accountancy student of USC. “A beer set of five 500-ml bottles is only P250.”

At a government hospital yesterday, Jan Niño lay in bed being spoonfed porridge by his father, SPO4 Samuel Pogoy.

The teenager was conscious after delicate head surgery on Monday to ease internal bleeding from a cracked skull.

“Makalihok naman siya. Makabangon na pud siya, pero dili pa siya kastorya ug tarong,” said the father, who took a leave from his post in the Lapu-Lapu police station to take care of his youngest son.

(He can move a little but still can’t talk properly.)

Worried about the hospital bills, the father said the family was just focused on restoring the boy’s health.

Asked if they would press charges against Councilor Carillo, who was identfied by four witnesses, all friends of Jan, the father was more subdued than angry.

“Nagpaabot pa ko sa kong asawa kay nag agad ra ko ani say iyang desisyon. Full suppport ra ko niya,” he said.

(I’m waiting for my wife. I will fully support whatever she decides,” he said.

The family, whose house was burned down in a fire, lives in a shack in barangay Ermita. The mother works as a Gender and Development (GAD) focal person of in the barangay hall of Ermita.

“Janin”, as his brothers and cousins call him, is a third year high school student of Regino Mercado Nigh High School. He was with friends drinking and hanging out in Kuerk’s restobar on Saturday night until the wee hours of Sunday when a rumble broke out between his group and another group of youths.

“He’s a quiet and simple kid (“hilomon ra man ng bataa, simplehon ra kaayo,” said his older brother, PO1 Kenneth Pogoy, who is assigned at the Parian police.

Pogoy was one of the policemen who responded to the second trouble alarm in the bar that night, a rumble past 3 a.m. that took place outside the bar in the parking lot. By the time he arrived, the melee was over and he didn’t know the wounded customer who was rushed to the Cebu City Medical Center was his youngest brother.

Pogoy said Jan Niño would go out with his barkada on weekends but didn’t belong to a gang or a fraternity, or have trouble before with the law.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the family said Councilor Carillo had not visited the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center or gotten in touch with them to offer assistance with the hospital bills.

“Kami kami ra gyud ang nagbayad. Nagprenda prenda na lang akong asawa. Dako gyud ang bayranan, pero makaya ra,” said the father, Samuel.