Part One
NIGHTLIFE is a significant contributor to a city’s economy.
Nightclubs, bars and watering holes have brought employment, as well as contribute to the sale of alcohol and tobacco products.
However, there are downsides, Quezon City Public Order and Safety and City Information Officer Ares Gutierrez told the BusinessMirror.
These downsides, however, are being addressed in a balancing act between revenue and public order, Gutierrez said.
He pointed to the city’s Business Permits and Licensing Office (BPLO), which “properly regulates” the nature and/or operations of various business activities within the city.
“Besides BPLO, we also have the Liquor Licensing Regulatory Board [LLRB] for business establishments like clubs, bars and the like,” he said.
According to documents provided by Gutierrez, the LLRB processes applications for a liquor license, or a permit to operate or engage in a liquor business in Quezon City.
The agency is also mandated to supervise and regulate the establishment and operations of manufacturers, distillers, distributors, dealers, wholesalers and retailers of liquor and other intoxicating beverages. The LLRB also promulgate rules, regulations and guidelines necessary for the proper implementation of four City Ordinances: NC 85, Series of 1985; NC 86 series of 1989; SP 896, Series of 2000; and SP 1016, Series of 2001.
There is also an agency that seeks to protect clubgoers or bar patrons, according to Gutierrez.
Ozone Disco
GUTIERREZ added the Bureau of Fire Protection is tasked to conduct regular inspection of all business establishments to make sure safety systems and features are present. These features ensure that everyone is safe should an unwanted fire occur, Gutierrez said.
We learned the hard way in 1996, he said, citing the Ozone Disco tragedy that left 162 people dead.
Twenty-one years ago on March 18, 1996, a fire broke out at that club in Tomas Morato, a known nightlife circuit. The Ozone Disco Club fire is officially acknowledged as the worst fire in Philippine history and among the 10 worst nightclub fires in the world.
Gutierrez said that, while a city may benefit from the after-hours economy for employing citizens, “it has its downside and social costs”.
“There is proliferation of underground businesses, like prostitution, binge drinking and the like,” he said, adding that illegal drugs can be included in that economy, as well.
To address this problem, Gutierrez said the local government implements a city-wide liquor ban. The ban mainly aims to prevent increasing untoward alcohol-related incidents.
The ordinance states that no establishment, including sari-sari (small neighborhood) stores, shall serve any liquor from 10 p.m. until 8 in the morning.
Inspections
GUTIERREZ noted that proliferation of clubs and bars might be contributing factors in the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, like HIV/AIDS.
“We can’t deny, it: if you open up a business and you start to sell liquors, some patrons will look for girls, then you will have a GRO [guest relations officer].”
To address this situation, Gutierrez said the city government looks at meeting the information gap among minors, especially high-school students. He said they do this through an awareness campaign against HIV/AIDS. The local government, Gutierrez said, distributed a textbook on HIV/AIDS in all public schools in the city.
But it is not only HIV/AIDS that we are alarmed, but the possible proliferation of tuberculosis (TB) in the workplace, particularly in business establishments operating up to the wee hours of the morning.
Gutierrez said all of the workers in the city are required to have health and occupational certificates. “We require the waitresses, cooks, GROs to have the health and occupational permit to make sure na wala silang sakit na nakakahawa [they don’t carry contagious diseases] ,” he said. “Hindi lang naman HIV/AIDS kundi pati na rin [It’s not only HIV/AIDS but also] TB.”
Pasay City
ONE of the known nightlife entertainment district is Pasay City.
According to the city’s health office, the local government is also active in raising awareness. The office ensures that all information education and communication (IEC) materials that guide workers in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS in the workplace are distributed to all entertainment establishments in the city.
The health office said the IEC materials contain information on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), specifically on the modes of transmission and the prevention of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infection (STI). These materials also contain the causes and consequences of these diseases, myths and fallacies associated with STIs, legal rights of entertainment workers, resources or support related to HIV/AIDs. The office also distributes a primer on Republic Act 8504, or the Philippines AIDS and Control Act of 1998.
Mayor Antonino Calixto has said the provision of these information materials on HIV/AIDS and STI is mandated under the newly approved Implementing Rules and Regulations of City Ordinance (CO) 2341, or the Pasay City Aids Prevention and Control Ordinance.
CO 2341 orders owners to post the materials in the establishment’s dressing rooms, comfort rooms and other appropriate places, as well as in lodging houses, to inform the employees and clients in the prevention and control of STDs.
At present, Pasay is strictly requiring all entertainers and other with similar occupations to attend AIDS/STI Awareness Seminars before they are issued a mayor’s work permit/license or occupational health permit, as required by CO 236, Series of 1993.
The said ordinance, likewise, requires regular STI examination on all entertainers and others with similar nature of occupation every two weeks by the Social Hygiene Clinic of the Pasay Health Department.
The Anti-AIDS campaign of the city government is in line with Calixto’s “Travel City” campaign, which seeks to promote the city as the entertainment and leisure center of the country.
To be continued
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza