Ganzon, Malabor turncoats with questionable loyalty

"My whole thing is loyalty. Loyalty over royalty; word is bond."  Fetty Wap

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- We can't blame some Liberal Party (LP) mainstays in Iloilo City if they are not comfortable with the presence of former city councilors Jeffrey Ganzon and Mandrie Malabor in the administration bandwagon.
The two balimbings (turncoats) are running for the city council in the 2016 polls under the LP ticket of reelectionists Rep. Jerry P. Trenas, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, and Vice Mayor Jose Espinosa III.
Strange bedfellows, indeed.
In the 2013 elections, Ganzon lost to Espinosa for vice mayor, while Malabor lost for councilor when they ran under the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).
All the UNA local candidates from congressman, mayor, vice mayor and councilors were, in fact, massacred in an unprecedented 15-0 blitzkrieg. 

CASUALTY

One of the UNA casualties for councilor was Dr. Gold Gonzalez, daughter of the late Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr., who is now running for mayor against Mabilog.
Members of the opposition party shared one vision and mission and vowed to stay together and go down together against titanic odds.
But when Gonzalez and her team filed their certificates of candidacy (COCs) in the Comelec last month, Ganzon and Malabor were no longer with the group.
They filed their COCs under the LP.
Like opportunists, they abandoned the opposition and embraced the administration to save their own necks.
They probably thought their chances of winning in 2016 were nil if they did not jump ship and join the "enemy."

DEFEAT

Were they demoralized after their 2013 defeat? 
Are they desperate to win and have underestimated the capacity of the party they jettisoned? 
What happened to the principles and cause they loudly espoused in the 2013 elections?
In 2013, their group accused the Mabilog and P-Noy administrations of graft and corruption and election fraud (owing to the 15-0 result in the local and national elections).
Some of them and their subalterns even filed a case against the mayor in the Ombudsman.
Can we blame Mabilog and other LP stalwarts if they will distrust these deserters and suspect them to be Trojans? 
By joining Mabilog's group, Ganzon and Malabor are expected to "behave" once they are back in power--or they will be ribbed as "ingrates."

Hypocrites casting a stone at city tourism chief

"The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy."  William Hazlitt

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- If they think they don't live in glass houses, detractors of Iloilo City tourism officer Junel Divinagracia should not telegraph their punches and hide in anonymity.
These detractors wanted to raise some "sensitive concerns" now that the city council is set to confirm her appointment after being appointed to the position by Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog on October 19.
She replaced Ben Jimena, who has retired but is still part of Mabilog's cabinet as consultant.
Some city councilors, who hate to be accused as field reporters of Boy Abunda and Inday Badiday, have alerted Divinagracia, who was in Manila for APEC Leaders’ Meeting from Nov. 16 to 19.
The city councilors are also aware that they are not saints, thus they can't just easily jump the gun on Divinagracia without due process.

SENSITIVE

Other public officials (both in the executive and legislative branches) are also being bedeviled by the so-called "sensitive" private matters like Divinagracia, but they weren't placed under hot seats because they are males.
By zeroing in on Divinagracia, the shades of bitterness, bias, prejudice and double standard are very much evident on the motives of these hypocrites.
Is it possible that the snakes are just around the corridors of power sibilating?
Let us remind them of Matthew 7:3 that says, "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?"
And also John 8:7 that says, "And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, 'Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.'"

-o0o-

BY giving the municipal mayors liberty to select their own bet for Iloilo vice governor, Gov. Arthur "Art" Defensor Sr. was short in saying that "I am caught between the devil and the deep blue sea."
As an astute politician, Defensor will never take side, at least not yet, while everyone in the poker table is still in the guessing game. 
Vice gubernatorial aspirants Neil "Junjun" Tupas Jr. and Christine Garin, both with political parties affiliated with the Liberal Party (LP), are hoping like anxious suitors to get King Arthur's blessing.
The governor has vowed earlier to campaign only for the party's official candidate.

AFFILIATE

Garin, mayor of Guimbal, Iloilo, is with the National Unity Party (NUP), an LP affiliate. 
She is the sister of Iloilo first district Rep. Oscar "Richard" Garin Jr. and the sister-in-law of Health Secretary Janette L. Garin, Richard's wife.
Her family has questioned Tupas' certificate of nomination and acceptance (Cona) as "official" LP bet for vice governor.
Defensor has long reconciled with the two powerful political clans in the province, and they have been working together under the umbrella of President Aquino's ruling party.
Political observers think Defensor has already in mind who to pick when push comes to shove, but is only keeping the aces in his sleeves.
Who will the fountain bless?  
The answer to that question is another question: Which clan is the lesser evil?

Run after cabbies, sikyu pimps, motels

“The sexual abuse and exploitation of children is one of the most vicious crimes conceivable, a violation of mankind’s most basic duty to protect the innocent.” Jennifer Weiner

By Alex P. Vidal

IF authorities are hell-bent in curving the incidents of “survival sex” (the term coined by West Visayas State University professor, Ma. Rosario Victoria E. De Guzman) involving teenage students, they must also throw the books on campus security guards and taxi drivers who serve as pimps.

Drive-in motels that don’t restrict female and male minors from checking-in with adult female and male sex patrons should also be penalized.

Some of those who enter the drive-in motels wear high school uniforms, so it’s not difficult to discern if they are minors or not.

Most students who sell their bodies for tuition and to earn extra income for their vices and other private wants and needs can’t attract customers within the parameters of campuses without the connivance of some security guards and taxi drivers.

By acting as part-time pimps, they reportedly get a share of at least 10 to 15 percent.

Some of them also maintain contact numbers of prostituted students in their wallets or in their mobile phones.

In some cases, security guards and taxi drivers enter into an unholy alliance to act as conduits of this illicit transaction.

TIPS

Cab drivers who pick up the students sometimes can earn extra “tips” from both the prostituted students and their clients.

So rampant is “survival sex” in our society nowadays that it has become a cottage industry.

In every transaction, legal or illegal, moral or immoral, it always takes two to tango.

There is more than meets the eye in this issue. If minors are involved in prostitution, their parents are not blameless.

They should also be held accountable under the law.

Exposure or being subjected to sexual exploitation and violence are punishable under Republic Act 9262 or an act defining violence against women and their children providing for protective measures for victims, prescribing penalties therefore, and for other purposes.

Authorities should not only focus on cases of minor students.

There are also out-of-school minors forced to commit prostitution by their own parents or guardians and by unalloyed circumstances like poverty and psychological factors.

When the City Council committee on women and children chaired by Councilor Liecel Zulueta hold a serious hearing on this issue, it must compel representatives of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Iloilo City Police Office Women and Children Protection Desk to submit detailed reports on cases of sexual abuse or prostitution involving minors and what have they done to minimize if not stop it.

-o0o-

BUT, ARE WE READY TO HOST A CRUISE SHIP? According to Department of Tourism (DOT) Director Helen C. Catalbas her office is promoting the northern Iloilo port; Iloilo port in Loboc, Lapuz district, Iloilo City; Guimaras port, Bredco port in Bacolod City; and San Carlos City port as possible destinations of cruise ships from all over the world.

While we laud Catalbas’ efforts, we are also worried that our local ports may not be physically and economically prepared to host giant cruise ships coming from major tourist spots all over the world.

Another concern is peace and order and transportation.

Local authorities led by the Philippine National Police must ensure first that tourists from other parts of the globe are safe once their cruise ships happen to dock in our ports and they want to tarry offshore.

We may not want to see the tourists being hauled off to and from the port by trisikads (pedicabs), tricycles and taxis due to lack of buses and other decent and safe transport facilities, unless we are courting international embarrassment.

Catalabas is part of the Philippine delegation in the Cruise-Shipping Convention and Exhibition in Miami, Florida from March 16-19.

Let Nava and Gerochi fight; it’s part of democracy

“For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.” Margaret Heffernan

By Alex P. Vidal

AS long as it is job-related, we have no problem watching flyweight contenders Plaridel Nava and R Leone Gerochi squaring off and transforming the session hall of the Iloilo Sangguniang Panlungsod into a boxing arena.

It’s a big relief though that both city councilors canceled the bout when proverbial coolers heads intervened.

Nava has clarified that his “one-on-one” dare to Gerochi was for a debate and not for a physical engagement.  

Even if it was for a physical duel, for sure Nava and Gerochi, both lawyers, did not mean to swap blows because of personal enmity.

They disputed Gerochi’s request for a copy of Nava’s committee report on the recent 1st Muti-sectoral Transportation Summit.

Nava resented Gerochi's actuation as they both belong in a bloc called "Voltes 5" which supposedly had a tacit agreement not to badger a member who is making a speech.  

The bone of contention was still related to public service.

The paramount concern of our elected officials is public service.

Therefore, the would-be non-title setto was for exhibition only, an offshoot of a boiling blood and hot temper.

Wala personalan. Obra lang. (No personal feud. It’s all work-related.)

Quarreling or engaging in fisticuffs is not an earth-shaking scenario among members of the legislative body.

HEALTHY

In fact, it’s a healthy sign in a democratic institution.

As long as it is not violent and not intended to terrorize people, rational argument should be a perfect venue to ventilate disagreement and grievances.

Even before the age of Youtube, social media and “selfie” technology, we have seen so many violent fracases “live” on TV involving senior state legislators in Taiwan, Turkey, Italy, Japan, Yugoslavia, Greece and other highly industrialized countries.

Fistfights among legislators in these countries would even last for three to five minutes and the melee even involved party mates who joined the fray from the balcony.

In democracy, every individual has the right to agree and disagree and translate the debate into a “one-on-one” brawl if necessary but not mandatory.

Sessions can sometimes be emotional and as tempers flare up, a free-for-all rumble becomes inevitable among the hot heads.

After the negative emotions have been emptied and energies zapped, the protagonists are soon back to normal lives; they shake hands, “bury the hatchet, and let bygones be bygones.”

STATE

In a fascist or communist state, there is nothing to dispute because there are no legislatures in the first place.

It’s a one-man rule.

In a fascist regime like that of Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini, there are no committee reports for the legislators as the latter don’t exist.

In communist rules, Russia’s Josef Stalin and Cuba’s Fidel Castro called the shots and shot the opposition dead. Democracy is dead, too.

Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Castro were the heads of their governments as dictators.

No national assembly.

No debate. No freedom to express. No free speech.

No democratic check and balance.

-o0o-

WE smell politics in the decision of Dumangas municipal councilors Jasmin Ocampo, Rene Dela Peña, Almar Marfito, Bert Celeste and Ronaldo Golez not to approve the resolution endorsing the issuance of a development permit to the National Housing Authority’s (NHA) resettlement project here for residents displaced by super typhoon “Yolanda” or Haiyan during their regular session on February 18.

The five are known political enemies of Mayor Rolando “Rolly” Distura, thus some people suspect politics was behind their lackadaisical attitude.

Distura said the NHA will be building over 7,000 housing units totaling around P2.1 billion.

But Golez, who lost to Distura for mayor in the recent local elections, insisted “they wanted more time to scrutinize” the housing project.

While they were dilly-dallying the resolution, some 1,000 irate housing project beneficiaries were getting restless outside the municipal hall.

The beneficiaries, mostly residents of identified danger zones in Dumangas areas frequently flooded such as river banks and low-laying areas, didn’t care about the political bickering among municipal officials.

They wanted a decent housing and safe environment. That’s all.

They didn’t want to be caught in the middle of the conflict between Distura and the opposition municipal councilors.

We hope warring Dumangas officials will set aside their animosity first for the good of the people.

Councilor Penaredondo is ungrateful to the vendors

“Does not the gratitude of the dog put to shame any man who is ungrateful to his benefactors?” Saint Basil

By Alex P. Vidal

In Spanish and Hiligaynon, they call it “ingrato” or ingrate.

When Iloilo City Councilor Eduardo “Ed” Penaredondo was wooing the votes of the hoi polloi or the masa in the previous local elections, he frequented the public markets, shook hands with the vendors, as well as the market goers.

He smiled at everyone he met.

To show their goodwill, market vendors gave him overwhelming votes and all-out support, thus Penaredondo, a lawyer and former policeman, became a city councilor for several terms under four city mayors – Rodolfo “Roding” Ganzon, Mansueto “Mansing” Malabor, Jerry Trenas, and now the incumbent Jed Patrick Mabilog.

In fact, he holds the record of being the longest-serving city councilor since 1988.

Penaredondo has been an outstanding city councilor; perhaps, one of the sharpest minds to ever grace the Sangguniang Panlungsod in Iloilo City.

In all the years that we have covered the City Hall beat since the time of the late former Mayor Rodolfo “Roding” T. Ganzon, we considered Penaredondo as one of the towering figures in the local legislature along with now Rep. Jerry P. Trenas, the late German Gonzalez, Dr. Perla Zulueta, Atty. Cirilo Ganzon, Atty. Rolando Dabao (despite his drinking habits), Fiscal Jose Junio Jacela, Dr. Tongtong Plagata (despite his temper), to mention only a few.

Until now, we still hold Penaredondo in high esteem.

RESPECT

We respect the man; we respect his authority.

But when he called the vendors of the Iloilo Central Market as “shits” and agitated to “drive them away with scud missiles”, he shot from the hips and was out of the bounds.

He became ungrateful to the sector that supported him as a politician.

His actuation during the council’s regular session last December 9 was also conduct unbecoming.

Penaredondo’s boisterous attitude and recklessness leave a bad taste in the mouth.

By justifying the cuss remarks as “just a matter of using metaphors and hyperbole to strengthen my argument”, he added insult to injury.

“Shit”, a hyperbole, perhaps; but a metaphor, sir?

What Penaredondo needs is a civil tongue, or a language that is not bogged down in jargon, not puffed up with false dignity, not studded with trick phrases that have lost their meaning.

In other words, watch your language!

CALL

Councilor Plaridel Nava was right to call the attention of the most senior alderman that he was hitting the vendors south of the border, and his foul words should be stricken out of records.

We credit Vice Mayor Jose “Joe III” Espinosa III for agreeing with Nava, who is their fellow lawyer.

Penaredondo and some of his colleagues were apparently peeved at the vendors, led by Rex Donasco, for not supporting the terms of reference (TOP) on the proposed revitalization of the Iloilo Central Market.

The vendors earlier snubbed the public hearing arranged by the City Council inside the public market for the TOP.

We doubt if Penaredondo’s hostility towards the vendors would be the same if they were dealing with Calle Real businessmen in coat and tie.

We doubt if his indifference and loud mouth would be more pronounced if they were dealing with the church authorities and other powerful and influential sectors in society that disagreed with them like what the vendors had shown in the TOP fuss.   

Interesting ‘conflicts’ in City Hall

“Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” Ronald Reagan

By Alex P. Vidal

WHEN we covered the City Hall beat during the administrations of the late former Mayor Rodolfo “Roding” Ganzon (1988-1991), former Mayor Mansueto “Mansing” Malabor (1991-2001), and now Iloilo City Rep. Jerry P. Trenas (2001-2010), the clashes happened usually between members of the legislative and executive branches.

Ganzon sprayed with water the seven recalcitrant members of the City Council using the hose of a fire truck at the Freedom Grandstand.

The maverick Ganzon, a former senator, was at loggerheads with most members of the local legislature that his administration was marred by legal skirmishes and interrupted by preventive suspension orders.

He even went as far as padlocking the office of Councilor Lorenzo “Larry” Ong.

City hall could not find peace as long as Ganzon was at the helm and the seven city councilors: Trenas, Ong, Edgar Gil, Rolando Dabao, German Gonzales, Eduardo Penaredondo, Cirilo Ganzon refused to assume sycophantic roles.

Malabor and his minions in the executive office were constantly under the watchful radar of former Councilor Perla Zulueta, who is now Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog’s executive assistant for finance.

LAMBAST

Each time firebrand Zulueta lambasted the executive office in privilege speeches and media interviews, Malabor’s blood pressure skyrocketed.

His legal chief, Atty. Mary Milagros Hechanova, always had plenty of paper works to review to save the king.

The clashes normally occurred in the name of check and balance.

It was always a healthy sign for democracy when the Mayor’s Office and the City Council were at each other’s throats and not singing a chorus when it comes to policing their ranks.

The City Council under the Trenas administration was not as adversarial compared to the previous administrations, but Trenas also had his own share of goose bumps from feisty councilors who refused subservient functions.

Today, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog’s relationship with the City Council appears to be sweeter than real life sweethearts.

The honeymoon is expected to extend until probably their terms will expire; and the bacchanalia, so far, has not been interrupted despite veiled differences in the choices for presidential candidates in 2016.

While everything has been going on smoothly between Mabilog and the City Council, civil wars occur from time to time within Mabilog’s inner circle, involving his key factotums.

KITCHEN

City legal chief Jose Junio Jacela got out of the kitchen when he could not anymore stand the heat after his appointment was rejected by the City Council.

The City Council rejection was not the one that wounded him most: it’s the Brutuses and Cassiuses who kept on planting thumb tacks in his back.

Until now no one can tell if Jacela and former Vice Mayor Victor Facultad, also Mabilog’s consultant, can still see each other eyeball to eyeball.

Spokesman Jeffrey Celiz’s wings had been clipped at the time when he was making mincemeat of Mabilog’s detractors.

In frontal combats vis-à-vis the mayor’s critics, no one can match Celiz.

Intrepid, brilliant and consistent, Celiz can single-handedly neutralize if not clobber all of Mabilog’s deadly detractors in debates and other verbal shootouts.

Why we haven’t heard of Celiz for awhile only the mayor knows.

Most recently it was Zulueta and City Legal Chief Daniel Dinopol who figured in a heated exchange of words in media.

So far, no heavy bombs have been unloaded. Only powder puffs and brickbats.  

If the apparent cold war between Mabilog’s two top lieutenants won’t be settled soon, it has the potential to escalate into ugly proportions.

Boy Mejorada didn’t deserve it

“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.”  Harvey Fierstein

By Alex P. Vidal

IF they call it a mortal sin, the only fault of Manuel “Boy M” Mejorada was he made a sweeping statement that Iloilo is a “bird’s nest of corruption” in the recent Senate blue ribbon committee hearing in Manila.

Columnist Wenceslao Mateo called it as “probably a slip of the tongue.”

His other “sin” was he dared but failed to topple the Goliath, considered as the most powerful and influential political demigod in the country next to President Noynoy Aquino and Vice President Jejomar Binay when he fell short during the senate inquiry with his most important ammunition: evidence. (It’s too early to celebrate though since the Goliath is still facing a plunder case in the Ombudsman).

But this does not make Mejorada an unworthy person that would warrant a declaration of persona non grata or unacceptable person from the Iloilo City Council.

Mejorada is intelligent and old enough to defend himself amid the barrage of ridicule and scurrilous verbal and written assaults he has been getting from those agitated by his “bird’s nest of corruption” allegation, thus I am not defending him as if my next meal is at stake in this issue.

OVERKILL

In declaring Mejorada as persona non grata, the City Council may have committed overkill and abuse of authority.

Or they may not have done their homework and shot themselves in the foot as a result.

The issue here obviously is political. They don’t like Mejorada’s adversarial fulminations and they hate his guts.

But with all his shortcomings and imperfections, I have not heard of any instance that Mejorada has brought shame to the Ilonggos.

Feud with politicians in defense of his political patrons and media colleagues yes, but they weren’t in the level of demagoguery.

But I witnessed how he brought honor to the Ilonggos and how he made many of his fellow journalists proud of him.

Former Iloilo Governor Neil D. Tupas Sr. would not hire him as provincial administrator if he was a flash in the pan or a fly in the ointment.

It was Mejorada’s exclusive article in the Asiaweek, an international magazine, in 1985 that prompted the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to help hungry kids in Negros.  

He was the first president of the Iloilo Press Club (1990-91) to be sworn in by no less than the late former President Corazon C. Aquino (I was a member of the IPC board).

Mejorada was the first outstanding fellow of the UP-Diliman College of Mass Communications-Konrad Adenauer Foundation-sponsored Graciano Lopez Jaena Community Journalism Fellowship in 1989 together with Diosa Labiste, a Magsaysay awardee for journalism and now UP-Diliman faculty member.

Only the best community journalists in the country are chosen to the Graciano Lopez-Jaena fellowship.

FIRST

Mejorada was the first and only Filipino back-to-back fellow in the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida in 1991-1992.

No Filipino or Asian journalist for that matter has duplicated his feat in the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, where some of the best broadcast, TV and print journalists in the world hone their skills.

This was the man they brought to the guillotine and burned at the stake for speaking out his mind, for sending a thunderstorm to the establishment; and for saying what others would not dare say before a nationally-televised “live” conference.

“I may not agree with what you said, but I will defend to death your right to say it,” Voltaire once said.

I may not agree with Boy Mejorada, my senior in community journalism, on many issues including some of his political statements, but I will defend to death his right to say them.

His rights to freely express himself about political and social issues are not only protected by the Bill of Rights of our Constitution, they are also enshrined in the Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to wit: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

POWERS

The powers vested upon members of the legislative body cannot overrule these paramount rights.

They are buttressed by the doctrine that no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of the press and expression.

Because he went to the senate inquiry as a “former provincial administrator”, only few people knew that he really was, and is still an investigative journalist, thus he was pilloried and sneered at for mentioning that he is an investigative journalist who happened to fancy the Wikipedia.

A journalist, driven by passion and a clarion call for public service, will forever be a journalist.

Mejorada’s knack for investigative journalism did not end when he joined the government service first as Tupas’ executive assistant and subsequently as provincial administrator.

So many politicians, military officers and even members of the church and judiciary have openly and scandalously brought dishonor and shame to the city and province of Iloilo in the past, but they were never declared persona non grata.

Not even a rap in the knuckles.

Councilor Eduardo Penaredondo, a lawyer and the most senior member of the city council who authored the resolution against Mejorada, sounded like a dimwit and hypocrite when he asserted that because of Mejorada’s statement in the senate inquiry investors will now avoid Iloilo.

Sex workers can’t change career overnight

“I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.” Steve Martin

By Alex P. Vidal

Sex workers are not supposed to beg for customers openly in public like beggars and street children.

It’s the job of their pimps to look for clients so they can negotiate for higher pay and be protected from abusive patrons.

The pimps do the selling and talking, while the sex workers or prostituted men and women do both the soft and hard labor.

And this should be done secretly or in places not frequented by minors.

Aside from being illegal, prostitution also particularly scandalizes the women. It assaults the woman’s moral fabric and degrades her person.

But this was not the case in Iloilo City.

Since last year, we’ve noticed that sex workers, some of them minors, have scattered right there in the vicinity of the historic Calle Real in downtown, City Proper from 9 o’clock in the evening up.

They personally approached males who passed by the dark sidewalks in the intersections of Ledesma and Valeria Sts., Ledesma and Quezon Sts., and in alleys within the parameters of the Plazoleta Gay rotunda.

The more aggressive of those "pink ladies" acted as pimps for themselves, blocking male pedestrians and proposing to perform sexual services for a certain amount.

HOMOSEXUALS

Sex workers in this area included homosexuals disguised as women.

They have virtually transformed Calle Real into a large prostitution market.

Some taxi, jeepney, tricycle and pedicab drivers, as well as sidewalk vendors, also sometimes dabbled as their pimps.

They scattered and disappeared temporarily when patrol cars passed by. And back again. Even barangay officials in these areas did nothing to stop them.

These transient commercial workers have become the eye sores in Calle Real. Sexual acts were sometimes performed in "standing position" nearby for a quickie. Fees ranged from P200 to P600 for "instant action." The amount increased when the client brought the sex worker to the motel.

Efforts to round them up last year and prevent them from selling their bodies openly by teaching them skills and livelihood training proved futile.

The Task Force on Moral Values Formation (TFMVF) trained them to make soap, household and personal products, and how to process fish, meat and other food they could sell.

Lack of funds failed to sustain the training as they did not get a small capital to start a livelihood as promised by the city hall.

ORDINANCE

Now that the city council has approved an ordinance which prohibits public solicitation for sex, authorities will now have the reason to lower the boom on them.

The ordinance was approved during the regular session of the city council August 19. The ordinance also covers the pimps or handler or anyone who offers sex for money in public.

It prohibits any person “to transact, engage, perform, portray and display any lascivious conduct before the public.”

Penalties for violation are: First Offense – a fine of P1,000 or imprisonment of 15 days at minimum to 30 days at maximum, or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court, and undergo  moral counselling by a competent government agency like DSWD;

Second Offense – a fine of P2,000 or imprisonment of one month and one day to six months, or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court, and undergo moral counseling by a competent government agency like DSWD; and

Third and subsequent offense – a fine of P3,000 or imprisonment of six months and one day to one year, or both fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court, and undergo moral counseling by a competent government agency like DSWD.

We expect sex workers and their pimps to feel the heat and embrace a more decent livelihood that will not endanger public health and morals.