DAGUPAN City Councilor Farah Decano deplored the lax enforcement of the city’s Anti-Flesh Trade Ordinance by the police and other government agencies that led to the proliferation prostitution in the city.

Decano expressed her dismay during a public hearing she called on Tuesday to evaluate the progress of the Anti-Flesh Trade Ordinance in the face of reports that prostitution in the city is again on the rise.

DECANO

Decano, a lawyer is the city council’s majority floor leader and chair of the Women, Children and Family Affairs Committee of the city council, authored the ordinance.

Showing still photos of lewd shows taken by her own asset, Decano said she suspects a “big protector” is working on the police to prevent police raids in establishments that regularly feature lewd shows, particularly making young girls dancing naked before bar customers.

Inspector Marites Aradanas, chief of the Women’s and Children Concerns Desk of the local police, however belied Decano’s suspicions and maintained that her unit has been active in the campaign against prostitution in the city without let-up notwithstanding the absence of funds from the city government.

She said proof of absence of a “protector” is the unhindered filing of cases against persons arrested in violation of the ordinance.

A day after the hearing, Aradanas led a team from the police, Department of Social Welfare and Development and a Non-Government Organization LEAF Foundation in raiding three night clubs where seven ‘guest relation officers’ sans any working permit were arrested.

Aradanas, however, clarified that the seven GROs were booked not for violation of the Ant-Flesh Trade Ordinance but for having no working permit, a violation of an ordinance enacted in 2003.

“Ang kampanya laban sa prostitusyon ay isa po s a mga programa ng ating chief of police si Superintendent Mariano Luis Verzosa. Ang utos po niya ay i-prioritize itong pagsugpo ng prostitustyon, Aradanas said.-LM

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