ILOILO City – The city government’s Task Force on Morals and Values Formation (TFMVF) is seeking partners to monitor motels, lodging houses, inns, beach resorts and similar establishments. It wants to make sure no minors sneak into them on Feb. 14 and do hanky-panky.
Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-447 prohibits these establishments from accepting minors to shield youngsters from sexual predators.
Violators face a fine of P5,000, imprisonment of one year and possible cancellation of business permit, according to TFVMF head Nestor Canong.
The taskforce is counting on the help of the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO), barangay officials and barangay tanods, and even taxi drivers.
“We remind these accommodation establishments nga indi pagpatalangon sa ila mga mabugnaw nga kwarto ining mga kabataan,” said Canong.
The taskforce has been issuing reminders to these establishments since last week. It counted around 21 across the city.
“Nag-commit man sila, including ang ila mga roomboys and guards,” said Canong.
Barangay captains assured the taskforce it would be mobilizing their tanods and “community watchdogs” composed mostly of the youth to help in the monitoring, he added.
Canong said monitoring will be intensified from Feb. 13 to 15.
He advised youngsters to focus on their studies but he would rather have parents constantly remind their children about this.
“Ang primary responsibility ara sa mga ginikanan or guardians. Sila gid dapat magbantay sang ila mga kabataan kag ila mga aktibidades,” said Canong.
Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-447, approved in November 2015, specified suspicious circumstances that should be a cause for alarm and must be prohibited. Two of these were:
* any person who, not being a relative of a minor, is spending time alone with the said minor inside a room or cubicle of a house, an inn, hotel, motel, pension house, apartelle or other similar establishments, vessels, vehicles or any hidden or secluded area under circumstances which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the child is about to be exploited in prostitution and other sexual abuse; and
* any person who keeps or have in his company a minor below 18 years old or who is 10 years or more his junior and is not a family member, in any lodging houses, hotels, motels, beer joints, discotheques, cabarets, pension houses, saunas or massage parlors, beach resorts or similar places
Under the ordinance, motels and similar establishments are required to post the notice “No Entry/Admittance of Minors” in their entrances and/or any conspicuous places in their premises./PN
