By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
In 2020, COVID-19 hit and turned businesses upside down; and for a while, nearly every enterprise was decimated to be equal. No operation, no profit.
This was particularly true for Ermita and Malate Districts, the entertainment center of Manila known as the Tourist Belt. Bars and restaurants closed shop, leaving thousands unemployed.
Well, that’s what we thought.
There’s a mighty amount of truth in whispers about dirty nightclubs offering not just booze, karaoke, and lovely company but sex in VIP rooms as well. A couple or so of these made a fortune in the back offices of legitimate shops that stayed open only as a “red carpet” entrance to where the real action is – the second floor!
But that’s a story for another day.
Back with a vengeance
Now that the government has lifted pandemic restrictions for videoke bars and nightclubs, here’s what has been going on behind closed doors, according to Firing Line spies.
On one side, you have GROs (guest relations officers) coming out of a two-year hiatus, penniless and desperate. On the other hand, you have a moneyed foreign clientele of mostly Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese. KTV bars are back with a vengeance, operating bolder than in pre-pandemic times to recoup losses!
To ensure enough money is made for everyone, GROs make an effort to give guests a “happy ending” so that they would keep on returning. Not be outsmarted, guests settle in VIP rooms and order bottles of tequila as ladies’ drink so that GROs would lose all inhibitions that keep them from crossing the line from entertainer to prostitute.
It’s a sad story for the bar workers, but bar owners and their managers either encourage these practices or turn a blind eye to them. They even offer tourist guides and bira maki (Japanese term for persons who provide leaflets for information) a 10-percent commission to bring in more flesh eaters, I mean, guests.
My spies say some of these bars are located on the second floor of buildings on J. Bocobo Street in Malate. Several of them are also found on A. Mabini Street.
The police and the National Bureau of Investigation should look into these abusive practices against women and stop the hanky-panky.
Barangay headaches
Two gay bars across from each other on Remedios Street, Malate, are the headaches of Barangay 699 officials.
Aside from their loudspeakers that blast noisy music, they also cause the heavy flow of vehicular traffic due to all the motorbikes parked on the street.
This could be the only spot in the metropolis with traffic congestion in the middle of the night until early morning because these bars operate from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.
In addition, the area is filthiest to clean because of all the polystyrene coffee cups, plastic bottles, soda cans, and cigarette butts blown by the wind from their front doors to the street.
It’s time for Manila City Hall to step in and help barangay officials solve this problem.
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SHORT BURSTS. For comments or reactions, email firingline@ymail.com or tweet @Side_View. Read current and past issues of this column at https://www.thephilbiznews.com