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[av_heading heading=’Moonlight scores vs city gov’t task force’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Wednesday, May 3, 2017
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ILOILO City – The city government’s Task Force on Morals and Values Formation lost one of the two complaints it filed against a lodge in Arevalo district where a 15-year-old girl was killed in June last year.
For “lack of coverage” Judge Ofelia Artuz of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC), Branch 5 dismissed the complaint against Moonlight Lodge for violation of Article 4 of Regulation Ordinance 2011-307.
The ordinance required business establishments to install closed-circuit television cameras for security purposes.
According to the court, the ordinance covered high-risk establishments only, not lodges or inns and similar establishments.
“I was thinking all the while that (Moonlight Lodge) was covered kay Article 4 of the ordinance was very general ang term, galeng may amendment, and under that amendment, the ordinance covered high-risk establishments only,” said task force chief Jorge Duron.
These high-risk establishments included banks, money changers, money lenders, and pawnshops among others.
But the fight to hold Moonlight Lodge accountable for the girl’s not was not over, Duron stressed.
The other complaint the task force filed was for violation of City Ordinance 2015-447 which prohibits lodges, inns and similar establishments from admitting minors.
The respondents were lodge owner Olive Yusay and manager Jose Jover.
Duron also said he would push for an amendment to Regulation Ordinance 2011-307 so it would cover lodges, inns, pension houses and similar establishments.
Just this March, the city council rejected a plea bargaining agreement proposed by Moonlight Lodge.
“We want to protect our minors, especially the girls. With what happened in that establishment, maski sin-o man guro indi magsugot,” said Councilor Lee Zulueta, vice chairperson of the city council’s committee on moral values and recovery.
In his letter to the city council dated Feb. 14, Duron stated that the respondent’s counsel manifested that one of his clients (Yusay) be dropped from the formal charges and that the management would pay the penalty of P5,000.
According to Duron, while the establishment was a single proprietorship, the owner was based in Bacolod City and had no hand in the day-to-day management of the lodge.
Zulueta, however, maintained that the lodge had many violations.
“It did not have security cameras, no signage against the entry of minors and worse, no security guard,” she said. “Kabuhi ang baylo sadto.”/PN
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