By MAE SINGUAY
BACOLOD City — Four Sangguniang Panlungsod members want to regulate “wet and wild” parties in this city.
Councilors Caesar Distrito, Em Ang, Carlos Jose Lopez and Ana Marie Palermo yesterday filed a proposed ordinance “regulating revelries, public parties, saturnalias and any other similar events” here.
Specifically, they want to disallow minors from participating and for the organizers to make security and safety a primary concern in such events.
Their proposal came on the heels of a petition on Change.org seeking the stoppage/regulation of “wet and wild” parties in this city.
The petition posted by Rose Llac have already gathered about a thousand signatures. It aims to collate 5,000 signatures.
Under the proposed ordinance, organizers must secure permits from the city government and must seek the City Council’s approval of their event.
Individual violators will be meted with a P500 fine and/or a 30-day imprisonment, while an erring organizer will be penalized with a P5,000 fine and cancellation of business permit, the proposal said.
A “wet and wild” party held in one of the malls in the city recently became a hot topic on social media, especially on Facebook.
The councilors said various events tagged as “wet and wild parties,” “weekend parties” and “summer parties,” and similar public gatherings were held in various areas in the city.
They said some partygoers, mostly minors, were “behaving outrageously” in public “while drinking alcoholic beverage, smoking cigarettes, dancing in a ‘wild’ or suggestive manner,” while others were “doing acts that may seem sensual, lewd, disturbing and scandalous.”
They said that such “inappropriate occurrences” have alarmed parents, churches and schools, and that “some have initiated online petitions asking for the city government to do something that will immediately address the issue.”/PN
