Who owns Kuerks?
The resto bar in Pelaez Street, Cebu City, said to be owned by a city councilor but is listed under the name of one Richard Aznar was the site of the all night drinking spree that ended in a rumble between gangs. The incident would have probably gone unnoticed except that Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo was tagged as the person who bashed the head of 16-year-old Jan Niño Pogoy.
Pelaez Street is part of what may be considered as Cebu City’s university belt, where public and private schools are located. The de facto sub-district includes P. del Rosario and Pelaez streets, site of the University of San Carlos (USC) main campus.
Cebu Normal University and Abellana National School are located in Osmeña Boulevard across Pelaez Street. The privately-owned University of Cebu main campus also sits in this belt. There is a computer school at the southern end of P. del Rosario. The Philippine Christian Gospel School runs a primary and secondary school in nearby Jakosalem Street.
The significance of the ordinance that prohibits the selling of liquor to minors and in places within the 100-meter radius from a school is expressed in the state’s mandate to protect young people against actions corrosive to morals.
Pogoy was drinking inside the restobar together with his barkada when they ran into an argument with another group of young men seated nearby. Urban legend describes drunkenness as temporary suicide and that practically described what happened to the cast of characters involved in the Monday, June 8 dawn melee.
Pogoy fell unconscious after someone bashed the young man’s head using a stone. It was his barkada who brought him to the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and their narration of the incident less than 24 hours after it happened pieced together the story for media reporters. However, it was the identification by four witnesses of Councilor Gerardo Carillo as the person who struck Pogoy that stirred public uproar. The official denied the charges but the public appears to believe he did it.
I was in the company of media colleagues composing the newly elected set of officers of the Cebu News Workers Multi-Purpose Co-operative (NewsCoop) and Cebu City Mayor Michael “Mike” Rama when the news broke out. Mike had just officiated in our oath taking when Fred Languido of The Freeman revealed the news. I think the mayor was a bit stunned by the report and was still processing his thoughts when I asked him for a reaction.
Politicians are somehow under pressure to show their good side when they appear in public and Mike must have been wondering what brought Councilor Carillo to the site of the rumble. With such questions remaining unanswered, Mayor Rama replied, “Due process and the rule of law will be followed.”
I don’t think Mike has any need to proclaim the legal process in the case involving Carillo against the konsehal because he knows the law. Moreover, no case has been filed yet because the parents of Pogoy are uncertain what action to take. Reports say they became more confused after Carillo gave them an undisclosed sum as “assistance.”
After the incident, the Cebu City treasurer’s office examined the operation of the restobar. A Cebu Daily News report said Kuerks features a live band named after Councilor Carillo, one that invites patrons to sing on stage at decibels that annoy people especially students who attend early evening classes in the University of San Carlos.
Fr. Anthony Salas, USC’s vice president for academic affairs had been calling the city government to close down all bars located in the Pelaez bar strip because of truancy among students but to no avail. Lawyer Augusto Go, who owns the University of Cebu is closing ranks with the USC official.
With mounting cases against Kuerks, Cebu City Attorney Jerone Castillo was left with no choice but to issue a cease and desist order, but as of Friday evening last week, it was still business as usual at Kuerks.
Mayor Rama has a full plate running the city but he cannot simply leave the case to go through the legal route without the public perceiving his administration as inutile in enforcing the law, or worse, that the restobar has a friend in the city mayor’s office.
Having said that, the good mayor should view the Kuerks case as an opportunity to exercise his executive powers and stand up in defense of public morals. That he will do so in the face of the seeming impunity of people behind the restobar and the growing apprehension of educators and parents should urge him to act without delay.
Padlock Kuerks and similar joints, Mayor Rama.