By MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City — How public parties, including the vogue “wet and wild” parties, will be held here in the future now lies in the hands of the City Council.
A proposed ordinance “regulating revelries, public parties, saturnalias, and any other similar events” has recently been approved on first reading.
“Councilor Em Ang and I authored the ordinance to address the concerns” of those disturbed by a recent “wet and wild” party in a mall here, Councilor Caesar Distrito said.
Several parents, teachers, and church leaders aired their sentiments with regard to the event after it became a hot topic on social media, especially Facebook.
At the said party, “minors were allowed to drink alcoholic beverage [and] smoke cigarettes while dancing in a wild or suggestive manner,” Distrito said. “Some were seen doing sensual, lewd, disturbing, and scandalous acts inside and outside of the venue.”
In light of the event, an online petition was put up against public parties and other related events in the city.
Distrito said he and Ang conducted two separate public hearings on the proposed measure.
They involved students, church leaders, parents, teachers, city government department heads, barangay officials, bars and club owners, and representatives from the Department of Education, Philippine National Police, and city’s Department of Social Services Division.
The following recommendations were collated during the public hearings:
- provide a clear definition of terms, and scope and limitations
- include a provision on how the ordinance will deal on school sanctioned activities or parties
- implement existing ordinances, like the curfew ordinance, that will help prevent minors from attending “inappropriate” parties; and
- provide a provision on tax requirement (e.g., 10 percent amusement tax).
“The Permits and Licensing Division should exercise more prudence prior to the granting of permits to these kinds of activities,” said Distrito.
Distrito chairs the committees on government assets, and youth and Sangguniang Kabataan affairs, while Ang chairs the committees on family and child development, and history, culture, and arts.
Edna Jalique, a teacher from Living Heritage Christian Academy, said parents are a key to solving the issue. Children learn values at home first, she said.
“Public decency should be promoted in the city,” Glenn Garces of the Diocese of Bacolod said. “Minors should not be allowed to have these practices.”
Councilor Archie Baribar, on the other hand, said the ordinance has many social implications, but it must first settle what should be regulated: the activity or the participant.
He said the ordinance might be in conflict with several constitutional rights, so it needs to undergo prudent deliberation and must have clear definitions.
Bacolod City Police Office’s Supt. Armando Tubongbanua believes that the city will lose its culture and identity once it continues to follow what other countries are doing, specifically holding “wet and wild” parties.
Councilor Ana Marie Palermo, meanwhile, said such activities are a “threat to children.” In relation, she believes the city’s curfew ordinance must be strictly carried out./PN
