Tougher stance against trafficking

Some Cebu City residents may find it disturbing that their city government allowed two bars which were the venues of two raids by an anti-trafficking task force to continue to operate despite the incident.

Club Temptation and Pussycat World Clubland were found to be operating without permits this year by the City Treasurer’s Office, though they paid taxes to the city this year.

Mayor Michael Rama explained that they were allowed to operate after being told by the city police that there were no minors caught during the raids. Despite this, Rama warned the management of the two bars that they will be monitored and that they will have to abide by the city government’s ordinances.

While it can be argued that trafficking can happen at any place—the managements of Cebu’s hotels and resorts agreed to monitor their own in the wake of reports about foreign sex predators reeling in minors in their establishments—a check of the city police’s records will show whether these clubs have become a haven for traffickers.

If such records showed that they do, then there is no reason for the city government to allow them to continue operating despite how much taxes they pay to the city government.

The mayor’s decision to allow these two bars to continue to operate somehow renders ineffective, nay inutile the campaign of the city’s anti-indecency board to crack down and shut down establishments that have become breeding grounds for prostitution.

The mayor’s decision came at a time when a meeting between bar owners and city government officials resulted in a common decision not to sell liquor after 10 p.m. in order to avoid outbreaks of violence among drunken customers.

That decision will have to be tackled in another time, but for now it showed that the city government can get down to business and require bar owners to impose some semblance of discipline on its patrons.

Why not impose the same tough enforcement on the managements of nightspots suspected of dealing “services” other than offering liquor and music to their customers?

We hope Mayor Rama would make true his statement that he will monitor these clubs and more so, impose sanctions and even downright close them if ever their premises are used anew as a haven for women and child traffickers.

Only when the Cebu City government does that will these traffickers stay away and avoid preying on women and children in the city and province.