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Ifugao bar owners warned: Don’t hire prostitutes or else..

By Jun Kindipan Dumar

LAGAWE, Ifugao – Provincial officials warned videoke bar owners to abide with labor laws, not employ minors and prostitutes or their business permits would be cancelled

Bar owners were told to produce their waitresses’ birth certificates before they could work to make sure they were not minors.

Police and the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office recently checked videoke bars in the municipalities of Lamut, Lagawe, and Banaue.

It was found out that waitress didn’t have birth certificates and there were no fire exits of business establishments. Business permits were also not posted in areas accessible to the public which violated laws.

Most of the waiters interviewed claimed they were 18 years of age and not minors. But all of them failed to show their birth certificates when asked by the PSWDO staffs.

Joyce Niwane, PSWD officer said the surveillance was to make sure prostitution was not practiced in the establishments and that are no minors working in the bars.

“A no-show of birth certificates means no permit to work,” Niwane said. More than 15 waitressess in Lamut to Banaue reportedly showed no birth certificates. Protection of our children and women is our primary concern,” said Niwane.

When asked about widespread prostitution in the province recently where minors were being reportedly paid for sex, Niwane said after reports came out in newspapers, radio, and television, parents became more aware of their children’s needs.

“Actually, most (alleged prostitutes) if not all of them are not from Ifugao but came from nearby provinces or cities.

Some reportedly came from Manila, Davao, Baguio, Benguet, Manila and Visayas. “Bar owners are the one who hire these women from other parts of the country because they know Ifugao women don’t want to work in videoke bar. It is the presence of these hired women who influence the young women of Ifugao,” Niwane said.