NEWSFLASH

LUCENA PADLOCKS VIDEOKE BARS

Lucena City, Feb. 7, 2000 Lucena City was teeming with videoke bars, all 27 of them, until Tuesday last week (Feb. 1), when Mayor Bernard G. Tagarao padlocked the fun houses.

Mayor Tagarao cited as grounds for closure the violation of a local ordinance prohibiting such establishments within 200 meters from any school, hospital, church, city hall, provincial capitol, and courthouse.

Specifically covered by the prohibition are night clubs, cabarets, saloons, cocktail lounges, beer houses, disco joints, sauna baths or massage clinics, dancing schools, billiard halls, ballrooms, and bowling alleys.

Joining the mayor during the raid were local leaders of born-again Christians, the dean of a Catholic school, officers of the Sangguniang Kabataan, the city’s permit and zoning officers, and a PNP Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team.

Besides violating the zoning ban, most of the padlocked establishments had expired business permits and had also violated the building code. Some did not have any permit at all.

Five years ago, City Hall ordered the transfer of videoke bars and nightclubs to areas outside the city proper, but some of them managed to return and relocated near churches, schools and government offices.