Cops warn men on “Jocards.”
MANILA, Philippines–Here is a police warning to male philanderers: Beware of “Jocards.”
Supt. Limuel Obon, chief of the Quezon City Police District-Kamuning Station, issued the warning to men who might be looking for stolen pleasures in the Kamuning area.
“The Jocards prey on unwitting men and they are rampant on Aurora Boulevard,” Obon told the Inquirer in a recent interview.
“Jocard” is a police term for women who lure men to dingy apartelles supposedly for sexual services. While the men are taking a shower—before or after the sexual tryst—the women run off with their wallets.
‘Gentleman Jocard’
Three or four such cases have been reported in a week in the Kamuning area, according to the police.
Some policemen at Kamuning grinned when asked how the term “Jocard” came to be used. “It’s just a code we use,” one investigator said.
He speculated the term might have originated from the name “Joe Card,” referring to American soldiers who availed themselves of sexual services when the United States was still operating military bases in the Philippines.
A check on the Internet also revealed the story of an African slave who led a revolt, killed his master and became a pirate lord named “Gentleman Jocard” in the movie “Pirates of the Carribean.”
Women also victims
In the Kamuning cases, the victimized men—usually married—were not inclined to press charges, afraid that their sexual adventures—or misadventures—might be reported in the media, 
He said the police used to round up the women and detain them for vagrancy to stop their modus operandi.
But the police apparently can no longer do that because vagrancy has been decriminalized.
Women’s groups would also come to their rescue, maintaining that women in the sex industry are also victims, Obon said.
Maria or Jennifer
The police have also unsuccessfully asked barangay (village) officials to revoke the business permits of the apartelles used by the Jocards.
To help complainants identify the women who took their wallets, the police have set up a gallery of previously arrested women who never gave their real names to the police.
“It’s Maria today, Jennifer tomorrow,” Obon said.
Other police officers would just warn the men when they see them hooking up with a Jocard.
But the men would usually tell the police to back off, saying, “Don’t meddle here, I’m not committing any crime,” Obon said.
When they do come to seek police help after being victimized, chances are they’d get an “I told you so” answer.
Originally posted at 5:30 pm | Sunday, July 13, 2014
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