Angeles City

[QUOTE=Pute Nut]Do you know what the actual ratio of membership is? If you look closely a great number of establishments are in fact displaying the Acta membership sign together with their membership number, so it's easy to get the impression it's (still) quite high.

Should these new events be interpreted as yet another push in the direction of making a filipino head of ACTA?[/QUOTE]


I do not know what the exact level of membership is. I would venture to say that the numbers are probably somewhere in the ball park of 70-80% but it is the larger bars (Doll house group - Doll house, Atlantis, Crystal palace and Tropix) that are the bigger bars that do not see the need to be members of ACTA. There have not been to many new bars that have opened, but most of the recent ones seemed to have taken a pass. I know that Byrd Cage took a pass on being a member as well. Having had conversations with people (including bar owners) the ones that did join ACTA seemed to get the impression that ACTA would be of great benefit to them and their bar, but in reality have found that to not be the case. IF you have an org that cannot speak with one voice, how good is that org going to be? and without every bar being a member there is not a single voice being spoken.

I do not think its a push to make a Filipino the head of ACTA, i think it is the typical attempt to extort money from the bars. Why do an honest days work when the (imo) majority of locals and authorities see foreigners as walking ATM machines, they view bar owners as walking U.S. Mints.

My problem is that the raids keep happening more and more frequently and there are more and more players/agencies involved in the raids. While during this series of raids did not harm any customers, that has not always been the case and there is nowhere near any guarantee that it will not again occur in the future. That said I feel as though it is not my place to tell anyone to come or not come here, it is up to them to make that decision for themselves, all I can do is report the information that I have confirmed and verified. That way everyone has facts and can make an educated decision of their own.

I am planning to visit AC in Nov, But now after reading all these reports I am concerned, Will there be any activity in NOV and How much these effect customers ? Will it be safe for me to go there ?

//Eric

[QUOTE=Eric Emp]I am planning to visit AC in Nov, But now after reading all these reports I am concerned, Will there be any activity in NOV and How much these effect customers ? Will it be safe for me to go there ?

//Eric[/QUOTE]

EE:

you bet your life, nobody knows if there will be another raid in November! Maybe yes, maybe no - maybe earlier, maybe later! However, I could imagine that the probability to be annoyed by such a raid is much lower than to catch an STD while using a rubber (folks, tell me if I am wrong!)! :)

However, since AC will be most likely as safe/unsafe as before I will definitely come again in November/December!

Cheers!


Hesekiels

[QUOTE=Eric Emp]I am planning to visit AC in Nov, But now after reading all these reports I am concerned, Will there be any activity in NOV and How much these effect customers ? Will it be safe for me to go there ?

//Eric[/QUOTE]

No one knows when raids will happen, but they have been increasing with frequency in the past 2 years and more so in the past 6 months. If anyone tells you they know now that a raid will happen in NOV, then I would ask them to prove it because IMHO they are full of S**T!

How much does it affect customers of the bar? That depends on each individual raid, there have been raids where the customers were given an announcement by the Authorities that if they have a bill to please pay it and leave ASAP, there have been a case where the Customers were detained inside the bar for over 3+ hours and during this "event" were basically allowed only to sit in their seats, no drinks, no food or anything, and in the Alaska bar raid conducted by the local PNP station 4 about 15 months ago, TWO CUSTOMERS were arrested. So it all depends on who is conducting the raids, Local PNP, National PNP out of Manila, NBI out of clark, NBI out of Manila, CIDG out of Manila, and the many other Agencies this country has that conduct raids on bars.

When will these silly government officials/agencies realize that raids hurt business?

Frequent raids could shut down a bar permanently and put hundreds of people out of work.

Any ideas on how much a bar must pay if they get raided?

[QUOTE=Ace of Spades]When will these silly government officials/agencies realize that raids hurt business?

Frequent raids could shut down a bar permanently and put hundreds of people out of work.

Any ideas on how much a bar must pay if they get raided?[/QUOTE]


LOL;
thats their intent to hurt business and quench out more money of evrybody..yeah its silly, but Lim did the same thing inthe 1980 in ermita and put evrybody off work, turning Ermita in a deserted place.

I could go on with the Lufthansa story and how the germans Fra (air) port invest 600 million US dollars and the fuc..n gouvernment didnt pay up, when finishing the job they kicked us out and killed the lawyers who were on our site. Now all the european airlines moved out of Nia, except the KLM air france. Fra port write the money off allready, but this monkey business attitude will hurt those gouv.fu..kers many years. Good luck for seeking new investors...

Im going to AC tomrow, but Im sure its the same thing like last weekend, deserted, lots of asians, gud gurls hiding or barfined allready.

Good thing AC is big and one can find allways some hooker to get laid..not my cup of tea any more, Im chosy and might look for another hunting place once I get my car :D

Blink

[QUOTE=Ace of Spades]
Frequent raids could shut down a bar permanently and put hundreds of people out of work.
[/QUOTE]

And?

IMHO most filipinos would rather take 50 pesos TODAY than 500 TOMORROW, given a choice.

This kind of thinking can also be used to your advantage in the Phils, so it's not all bad :D

[QUOTE=Ace of Spades]When will these silly government officials/agencies realize that raids hurt business?

Frequent raids could shut down a bar permanently and put hundreds of people out of work.

Any ideas on how much a bar must pay if they get raided?[/QUOTE]

There lays the problem, these governmental officials and agencies do not care that they are screwing the golden goose, what they "care" about is supplementing their meager government incomes with attempts of extortion (aka Raids). If you honestly believe that these agencies are looking out for the girls, then you are vastly mistaken. To be fair, sure some of the raids that have occurred have been in an attempt to shut down or minimize the "prostitution" that occurs, but the main motivation behind this IMO is GREED AND MONEY, but some of it is due to pressure the Philippines receives from the other SUPERPOWER countries of the world and the religious leaders of the world, but that does not happen very often.

Let me give you an example of how caring these governmental officials and agencies, during the raid that occurred at Dollhouse bar, which was their photo shoot night (a special event in which the girls get body painted) the "authorities" took the girls who were painted and loaded them into vans and were taken to Manila, where later they were released after verifying that all were over the age of 18, but these "CARING" authorities, put them out on the street without any additional clothing (keeping in mind that most were wearing only paint and t-backs/thongs) and they were NOT transported back to AC by said "authorities" (the dollhouse bar did arrange transportation for the girls to get back, but that is not my point).

Another example would be there is NO after care what so ever in the vast majority of the cases where there was a serious breach or break of the laws, so if they are so "caring" why is there no follow up or after care, such as re-education, job training and the like? Simply because they cannot afford to have such programs.

You are very correct in your statement that "Frequent raids could shut down a bar permanently and put hundreds of people out of work", but the thing that you are not remembering is that the people behind these do not care, they think of it in a manner similar to this - If I cannot benefit Financially from the bars being there, then what do i care if they close down.
As sad as it is, that is the way many in power and in positions that are not dependent on the bars in a financial way think about them.

[QUOTE=Ace of Spades]When will these silly government officials/agencies realize that raids hurt business?

Frequent raids could shut down a bar permanently and put hundreds of people out of work.

Any ideas on how much a bar must pay if they get raided?[/QUOTE]

I am sure there are some on this board that remember the Ermita / Mabini bars in Manila. They were closed down because the then mayor decided that it would make good political capital. The result was virtually all secondary businesses (restaurants and hotels) in the area also had to close down and the area became a filthy, dangerous, squalid, squatter slum for 15-20 years. Squatters actually moved into some of the bars. Only recently has it begun to recover, but is still generally squalid. Ironically the whole exercise was stupid as the bars moved into the adjacent major precinct (Pasay).

On a bigger scale, they kicked out the US forces from Subic and touted the act as a big leap forward for the Philippines. Subic, by all definitions, is a failure. Really huge amounts of foreign revenue and employment at the base was lost. Even the highly touted FedEx operation in the area did not work out, they recently moved out to China.

High flight costs to Philippines, overvalued Philippine Peso and high Philippine inflation will slow the businesses in AC. Bar hassling and corruption could kill it off.

[QUOTE=Acfreddie] To be fair, sure some of the raids that have occurred have been in an attempt to shut down or minimize the "prostitution" that occurs, but the main motivation behind this IMO is GREED AND MONEY, but some of it is due to pressure the Philippines receives from the other SUPERPOWER countries of the world and the religious leaders of the world, but that does not happen very often.[/QUOTE]

Yes..we remember the so called "letter from a concerned international citizen's group" :D (or whatever the exact wording was) that singled out AC as the "source of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines" (which is not really true, OFWs probably contribute more to that).

It's not easy to see a clear pattern here though..I mean the raids have clearly increased under the new mayor, still the very same guy didn't hesitate to attend the opening of a Santos Street pub/bar (Shanos) in person.

It's easy to get the impression that the current administration is betting that other businesses than bars will become a more important part of the mix and that AC don't want to become a "second Pattaya". There is a lot of business activity going on that's totally unrelated to the bars. Inside the base there are several callcenters, resorts (Fontana, lots of Chinese visitors), manufacturing companies (L&T, Nanox etc). The development of the SM Mall and the assigning of CRK as the new main Manila International airport to be(which will not happen anytime soon though) are other examples.

It is also interesting to monitor the influx of Korean investors in AC and how the the filipino/korean infatuation/love affair will develop. We already know that the Koreans have been successful in getting their very own Korean police station, something the whiteys only can dream of.

But those who predict the instant ruin of AC as we know it will probably be wrong. I have a friend coming into town in November. I have not told him to cancel his ticket.

[QUOTE=Ace of Spades]Angeles city's best kept secret is that Dennis Rodman's father lives in town and owns a small restaurant with great food at cheap prices. He has lots of stories to tell -- he has been living in AC for like 40 years. Highly recommended!

His restaurant is opposite the Blue Fields Hotel.[/QUOTE]
Well my first impression when i met him a few years ago at Jackie & Bulls restaurant was the guy was a big jerk!! The first thing out his mouth was he was Rodmans father,then he tried to pressure me into buying some kind of scrap book with Dennis in it. NO THANKS!! Then he went on to brag he had about 20 or 25 kids running around A.C. area,and im sure he was not supporting all of them! As we were seating in Jackies at least 2 kids walking down fields street that a thought were pure black kids from U.S. But Jackie told me that they were some of Rodmans fathers kids! Thats my HUMBLE OPINION.

[QUOTE=Mayntain].....NO THANKS!! Then he went on to brag he had about 20 or 25 kids running around A.C. area,and im sure he was not supporting all of them! As we were seating in Jackies at least 2 kids walking down fields street that a thought were pure black kids from U.S. But Jackie told me that they were some of Rodmans fathers kids! Thats my HUMBLE OPINION.[/QUOTE]

I never understood what the fuck is their to be proud about creating bastard kids?

[QUOTE=Bill Buxton]It will blow your mind how much info gets pushed around the bamboo hotline.B.B.[/QUOTE]
B.B. is 100% on point with that statement. I have over 100 Filipino employees working for me and the information that they tell me before it is released is amazing. I always tease them that there is three ways to get information in the Philippines...telephone, television or tell a Filipino.

Robb

I have posted my experiences before about my experiences going into businesses and the spooky nature of the locals. I have more to add:

Recently, I went into one of the smaller malls in town --- again, I could not get any service. The employees at several businesses stared at me with a hard look without saying a word, STRANGE! I got spooked and I left. I have this problem almost every day, usually out of the entertainment district (this area has its own issues). Most businesses along Fields Ave (owned by expats and Filipinos) do everything they can to make you feel comfortable and overall provide a good service. Outside of this area, my impression so far is that businesses that serve Filipino clients have a completely different philosophy about making money.

[QUOTE=Ace of Spades]I have posted my experiences before about my experiences going into businesses and the spooky nature of the locals. I have more to add:

Recently, I went into one of the smaller malls in town --- again, I could not get any service. The employees at several businesses stared at me with a hard look without saying a word, STRANGE! I got spooked and I left. I have this problem almost every day, usually out of the entertainment district (this area has its own issues). Most businesses along Fields Ave (owned by expats and Filipinos) do everything they can to make you feel comfortable and overall provide a good service. Outside of this area, my impression so far is that businesses that serve Filipino clients have a completely different philosophy about making money.[/QUOTE]

Damn Ace what are you wearing? Or doing? I have found them to act kind of funny when dealing with Black people but not like what you are describing. Man I would love to hang out with you just to see what the hell is going on. I will be home in the middle of October have to spend a week in Thailand at the damn dentist.