THIS PAPER’S Friday editorial, Still Sin City, reminded me of the very first story I filed as a stringer for the Associated Press and correspondent of People’s Tonight, where it appeared in its July 21, 1987 issue.
ANGELES IS a city that has long lost its soul. And there is, if any, little effort being exerted to redeem it.
The city is not lacking in born-again proselytizers, religious crusaders and breast-beating politicians. It even has an excess of them. But it too has all that which prompted Yahweh to storm Gomorrah with fire and brimstone.
Chief Censor Manoling Morato’s moral crusade is openly mocked in Angeles. Uncensored and banned lewd films, both foreign and local, are shown in four local moviehouses catering not only to adults but even to minors. At the lobbies of these theaters, still photographs of the real thing—phalluses, pubis, penetration scenes – displayed for all passersby, old and young, to gawk at. The long and blatant operation of these theaters has not raised even a whimper of moral outrage from the citizens.
Despite periodic “total wars” from the police, illegal gambling has remained an endemic city problem.
While police raids have broken institutionalized jueteng, they have spawned however “guerrilla” jueteng operations. The city has been divided into sectoral spheres of influence by small-time gambling lords who have evolved a “draw-then-run” mode of jueteng.
Aside from the illegal numbers game, other gambling forms like sakla, monte, pusoy, lucky nine and bingo have taken roots in practically all the city’s barangays. So pervasive is illegal gambling in the Angeles that one congressional candidate once referred to is as the city’s “main industry.”
The Commission on Immigration and Deportation is sleeping on its job in Angeles. Australians lord it over in this R&R city, cornering more than 60 percent of the entertainment industry, according to estimates of the Integrated Entertainment Inc. here.
A number of Australians-owned clubs are “exclusive only” to foreigners. What goes on inside these clubs is common knowledge here. Shows range from the “mild” non-stop nude-dancing, shower acts with audience participation, to the more graphic live sex acts and bestial girl-dog encounters. Plus child prostitution.
Filipino-owned clubs are not far behind. They too have their share of nude go-go girls, showers, coin shows and live sex acts.
The old prostitution district near the Pampang public market locally knows as “The Area” remains the center of cheap sex. Girls are available for P25, room use included.
Streetwalkers in Balibago who hang around disco joints, pubs and restaurants are priced much higher at P100, exclusive of room use.
The herpes and AIDS scare has not dampened in any way the still burgeoning flesh trade.
Why this city has deteriorated to the ways of immorality is a source of wonder to outsiders. But not to the locals, having been conditioned to accept it as the status quo.
So who gives a damn?
SO WHAT has changed?
The prices of the girls perhaps and the intensity of the shows. Yes, the foreign lords of the entertainment industry too. And cybersex for the porno theaters.
Still, the element of Gomorrah has remained the same. So same difference.
The name of the mayor too: Nepomuceno – Francisco then, Francis now.
ANGELES IS a city that has long lost its soul. And there is, if any, little effort being exerted to redeem it.
The city is not lacking in born-again proselytizers, religious crusaders and breast-beating politicians. It even has an excess of them. But it too has all that which prompted Yahweh to storm Gomorrah with fire and brimstone.
Chief Censor Manoling Morato’s moral crusade is openly mocked in Angeles. Uncensored and banned lewd films, both foreign and local, are shown in four local moviehouses catering not only to adults but even to minors. At the lobbies of these theaters, still photographs of the real thing—phalluses, pubis, penetration scenes – displayed for all passersby, old and young, to gawk at. The long and blatant operation of these theaters has not raised even a whimper of moral outrage from the citizens.
Despite periodic “total wars” from the police, illegal gambling has remained an endemic city problem.
While police raids have broken institutionalized jueteng, they have spawned however “guerrilla” jueteng operations. The city has been divided into sectoral spheres of influence by small-time gambling lords who have evolved a “draw-then-run” mode of jueteng.
Aside from the illegal numbers game, other gambling forms like sakla, monte, pusoy, lucky nine and bingo have taken roots in practically all the city’s barangays. So pervasive is illegal gambling in the Angeles that one congressional candidate once referred to is as the city’s “main industry.”
The Commission on Immigration and Deportation is sleeping on its job in Angeles. Australians lord it over in this R&R city, cornering more than 60 percent of the entertainment industry, according to estimates of the Integrated Entertainment Inc. here.
A number of Australians-owned clubs are “exclusive only” to foreigners. What goes on inside these clubs is common knowledge here. Shows range from the “mild” non-stop nude-dancing, shower acts with audience participation, to the more graphic live sex acts and bestial girl-dog encounters. Plus child prostitution.
Filipino-owned clubs are not far behind. They too have their share of nude go-go girls, showers, coin shows and live sex acts.
The old prostitution district near the Pampang public market locally knows as “The Area” remains the center of cheap sex. Girls are available for P25, room use included.
Streetwalkers in Balibago who hang around disco joints, pubs and restaurants are priced much higher at P100, exclusive of room use.
The herpes and AIDS scare has not dampened in any way the still burgeoning flesh trade.
Why this city has deteriorated to the ways of immorality is a source of wonder to outsiders. But not to the locals, having been conditioned to accept it as the status quo.
So who gives a damn?
SO WHAT has changed?
The prices of the girls perhaps and the intensity of the shows. Yes, the foreign lords of the entertainment industry too. And cybersex for the porno theaters.
Still, the element of Gomorrah has remained the same. So same difference.
The name of the mayor too: Nepomuceno – Francisco then, Francis now.
