“It won’t happen again.”
This was the statement of the lawyer of Las Vegas KTV bar that was ordered closed for one year by the Cebu city mayor on Friday for staging nude shows.
Lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna said his client is ready to put up a P100,000 bond to assure that no laws would be violated during its operation.
“The Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board (CCAIB), at any time, can confiscate this P100,000 bond if there will be lewd shows in the KTV bar in the future. We just want to prove that we are not tolerating this kind of actions,” he told Cebu Daily News.
It’s up to the CCAIB and the mayor whether to accept the offer.
The lawyer said he would file a motion for reconsideration on Monday.
The KTV bar, which opened two years ago, was admonished by the anti-indecency board after a surveillance inspection on July 9 and 24 showed that it had violated Cebu City Ordinance No. 1408 which bans lewd shows.
The closure order said the management first assured that the acts would no longer be committed.
But another inspection on October 31 and November 1 showed a repetition of the violations. Last Nov. 29, the CCAIB wrote to the bar again giving it 72 hours to explain why the business should not be closed for violating the ordinance.
Mayor Michael Rama agreed with the board and ordered its immediate closure, which was implemented Friday, affective jobs of about 100 bar workers .
Dela Cerna in an earlier interivew admitted that there was one instance when a female dancer took off her clothes when prodded by customers.
But dela Cerna said this was “purely her personal act” and not in line with the policy of the management.
“What happened was beyond our control. The owners of the KTV bar are not always there to monitor what’s happening,” he said.
He said the female dancer was fired and the floor manager was suspended.
If the plea to lift the closure order is denied, Dela Cerna said they will seek court intervention since there was “no due process” and they were being “harassed.”
The board is headed by Dr. Lucelle Mercado, and includes city prosecutors as members./Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol