Philippine News Digest 48
January 19, 2003 ·
Contents:
- Minor gets 12 years for drug raps
- Subic clubs defy ban on lewd shows
- Filipinas forced to work in nightclubs in Ivory Coast
- Subic clubs defy ban on lewd shows
At least five night clubs in Barangay Calapandayan in Subic, Zambales continue to offer nude shows to their customers and employ minors despite the closure order issued by Mayor Jeffrey Khonghun in September last year, according to Buklod Center. Konghun said he had ordered the police to check reports relayed by Buklod but Chief Insp. Jerry Sumbad said they have yet to receive reports of nude shows in the town recently. Source: Allan Macatuno, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 14 January 2003.
Minor gets 12 years for drug raps
A 14-year old boy was sentenced January 15 to spend 12 years in detention for possessing less than a gram of marijuana. Judge Abednego Adre of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court also ordered the boy, an out-of-school youth, to pay a fine of P300,000. He is now under the custody of social workers at the Molave Youth Homes. Thousands of minors in the Philippines suffer the harsh penalty of the law due to lack of a juvenile justice law. The PREDA Foundation is lobbying in the Congress and Senate for the enactment of the juvenile justice bill after documenting several cases of maltreatment of minors from arrest to detention. Source: Agnes Donato and correspondent report, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 19 January 2003.
Filipinas forced to work in nightclubs in Ivory Coast
Twenty-four Filipino workers, including women who were duped by illegal recruiters into working as bar girls without any salaries for the past year, have been evacuated by the Department of Foreign Affairs from the strife-torn Ivory Coast in West Africa. There is still an estimated 50 more Filipinos working in Ivory Coast being readied for repatriation amidst the worsening civil war led by rebels in Muslim north opposing the rule of President Laurent Gbagbo. Source: Michael Lim Ubac, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 6 January 2003.
