General Information

I would not recommend a hotel downtown, but if you want sleeze central check out the Mercedes Hotel. There is also a new place downtown which I've heard good things about. I can't remember the name, but I'll look it up when I get home and can access my home computer.

X Man

[QUOTE=Tom II]Are there hotels (you could recommend) in the downtown area near Jonquera for westerners to stay or would you suggest getting a hotel in the tourist district.

I know in Phnom Penh there was a similar scene around a park where street girls were being pimped to customers for a cheap price. But there was always the chance the pimp and the girl would run off in the park after the money was handed over to the pimp.

TC.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=X Man]Nice post and nice adventure. I hope you can tell us more about your Internet friend in the CHAT section.

I've helped out with the name above, but there are some other points I should clarify.

1) Go go places can be much cheaper than Mort suggests.
2) All the bar girls/street girls will tell you they are new on the job. Come back in six months and you'll get to meet them again.
3) Street pimps may ask for 1500 if you look like a newbie, but it's more like 500 or less. Maybe 1500 was the total price -- lady + tip.

4) Hilarious??? Different strokes for different folks, but I thought it was horrific to see a bunch of girls paraded in front of taxi headlights on a public street. That may be the reason for the taxi driver's reluctance. You never explained why a taxi driver was losing money on this deal...[/QUOTE]

X Man
What I meant was taxi drivers don't like taking people to Honkera simply because they lose the large percentage that they would have added on,had they brought the girl to the customer rather than taking the customer direct to the girl. The girls taking part in the parades were not shrinking violets but actually enthusiastic about parading in front of the drivers, since this is an opportunity for them to get work. I went down to the area at 2am and I will admit I was very concerned initially. My guide knew all the pimps, didn't take any crap from them and he assured me this was one of the safest places to walk in the Phillipines. He reckons the local Mafia will not allow anything to go on that threatens their trade and I really did feel very safe once I overcame my initial fear. That said it is not somewhere I would want to go flashing money or jewellery around and common sense dictates wherever you are in the world and taking a buddy along is always a good idea. The other poster Weewillem is correct with his more specific location though I was told that the action is very limited until about 6pm when it is usually going dark.
In response to Iron Duke's post about the Viagra, the local English paper carried a story this week about pharmacies being prosecuted for selling counterfeit drugs..........hope it is still functioning ok Iron Duke?

[QUOTE=X Man]I would not recommend a hotel downtown, but if you want sleeze central check out the Mercedes Hotel. There is also a new place downtown which I've heard good things about. I can't remember the name, but I'll look it up when I get home and can access my home computer.

X Man[/QUOTE]Thanks X-Man the hotel info would be helpful if you can find it.

Taking a page out of what a downtown area consist of here in the USA, my perception of a "downtown" district, is a bustling area full of locals and tourist shopping going to boutiques, theaters hotels etc. Of course there are the occasional prostitutes or drug dealer plying their trade, but nothing to be frighten of.

Reading some buzz words here, I get the impression Cebu downtown has a completely different flavor. Can someone enlighten me (without the flames) on what I will see in Cebu downtown? Is walking there during the day dangerous to me?

Tom.

Tom,

Cebu is safe anyplace, anytime, everywhere complimented with chicks anyplace anytime, everywhere :D

You just have to breath and be there at Cebu to pick chicks...its not
over-exageration ....You don't have to think about what we think the most while at home..

if you totally freak out, drink and f**ck 24/7....You would overspend by 20 to 30 %...but you can let your mind completely free to a new level which would be equivalent to sexual nirvana of sorts..

I only made the mistake of carrying my work load to Cebu..big mistake..but my first two weeks were bliss and then for work i got contact with outside world and it all disappeared :(

Donwtown cebu is unclean than uptown..but you can score easily...for staying...it would be better to live in uptown area ..due to many facilities and bars..pirce would be more or less same..not too much big difference..


Old folks who live in Cebu has seen the world before us and they know..they have found the paradise...its just that internet came to us and we got the information before we crossed to retirement..

Its the city that has fit retired folks and Cebu is pushing itself as retirement haven..and they surely have calculated every aspect of safety and money..so if it suits them..it will surely suit us..


Good Luck

[QUOTE=Mortman]X Man
In response to Iron Duke's post about the Viagra, the local English paper carried a story this week about pharmacies being prosecuted for selling counterfeit drugs..........hope it is still functioning ok Iron Duke?[/QUOTE]

Haven't used it yet... an emergency supply just in case Mother Nature let's me down! However, I bought it at a branch of Mercury and I would be very surprised if they did anything not reputable.

[QUOTE=Tom II]Are there hotels (you could recommend) in the downtown area near Jonquera for westerners to stay or would you suggest getting a hotel in the tourist district.[/quote]The hotel group "Queensland" has short-time motels in Cebu. Simple, clean and adequate room for the purpose with aircon, wc and shower (not somewhere you would want to stay several nights).

There is one within a short taxi ride from Jonquera. About 300P for a 3hr short-time. 500-600P if you stay all night. The taxi driver will know where it is.

Similar to the Thai short-time hotels where you drive right up to the room, a room boy is waiting outside to show you in and he returns collect the rental when you leave. All very simple, safe and anonymous.

[QUOTE=Iron Duke]I just went into a pharmacy and asked for it. They asked if I had a prescription and when I said no they made me sign a form to say I had taken it before and did not hold them liable for anything.

Not cheap but at least I know I got the real thing. It's offerered on every street corner but I'm reluctant to take pills bought on the street, even if they were genuine, which I doubt.[/QUOTE]Thanks for that and your later post Iron Duke.

Was that a Mercury pharmacy in Cebu City?

Can you recall the price?

Ooops, I couldn't find the contact info for the newer hotel in downtown Cebu. Anyway, here is a list of hotels I have. I've stayed in four or five of these places. This information came from different sources (incl ISG) and may be out of date in some areas.

Cebu Hotels area code 032 (last update 7.07)

West Gorordo maybe not guest friendly, close to Ayala Mall / Bo's. Dont get the suites / Best rooms are deluxe, 4th floor with balcony overlooking the street/alley which has interesting foot traffic.
[url]http://www.ngkhai.net/cebuwiki/inde...t_Gorordo_Hotel[/url] [url]http://www.westgorordohotel.com/[/url]

Mango Park Hotel, 032 233 1511 / 233 5679 [url]http://www.ngkhai.net/cebuwiki/inde...ango_Park_Hotel[/url]
07.07 paid 1350

Northwinds Hotel – past Waterfront / cheap [url]http://www.ngkhai.net/cebuwiki/inde...orthwinds_Hotel[/url]
Crowne Garden Hotel on Salinas St. 1300 incl breakfast
Waterfront, nice pool, check out H2O club 232 6888
Richmond Plaza Hotel, 232-4613 (-18) [email]richmondhotelcebu@yahoo.com[/email]
Lahug on gororodo, facelift for ASEAN summit 2006 [url]http://www.richmondhotelcebu.com/[/url]

Castle Peak Hotel [url]http://www.ngkhai.net/cebuwiki/inde...stle_Peak_Hotel[/url] [url]http://www.castlepeakhotel.net/[/url]

Cebu Grand Hotel, near Capital 1600 to 4200 / roof pool / 254 6331 / 6361/ 6362 [email]info@cebugrandhotel.com[/email] [url]www.cebugrandhotel.com[/url]

Cebu Midtown Hotel 63 32 253-9711 2000peso+

Hotel de Mercedes, downtown 253 1105

Rajah Park Hotel (032) 412 3337 / 412 4850 Some rooms no windows. Rates start at 1500, incl breakfast

Holiday Plaza (032) 254 9880 [email]holiday@holidayplazacebu.com[/email]
[url]www.holidayplazacebu.com[/url] Superior 1900 / Biz class 2300 / Exec 3300 good buffet breakfast included

Hotel le Carmen, near net café, 255 6366/67 P1000 to 1450 large room is better
Diplomat Hotel, 90 F. Ramos Street 032 253 0099 [email]diplomathotel@yahoo.com[/email]
prices 1200- 2,500 (suite in new wing), clean, some rooms have nice views [url]www.diplomathotel.com.ph[/url]

Kiwi Lodge 1060 G. Tudtud Street, Mabolo 032 232 9550 [email]kiwilodge@pacific.net.ph[/email] 850-1250

LS 2 pension house, Junquera Ext. 254-8406 / 259-0826 P600 / no guests

Casa Rosario, 101-E Ramon Aboitiz St. 255 0525 / 256 2225 / 253 5134 [url]www.casarosario.net[/url] 1000-1300

Kan Irag Hotel 253 1151 (-57) under 1000 [email]kanhotel@pop.cebu.pw.net.ph[/email]

Hotel Asia, down a side street opposite Doctor’s college, 11 Don Jose Avila St.
032 255 8536 / P1200 to 3k incl. breakfast / Japanese focus/ [email]hotelasia@pldtdsl.net[/email]
hotelasiacebu.com / nice rooms, exec has desk and sofa for 2500

Mactan Hotels

Bella Vista and Cesario have free airport transfer and use [email]xenios@mozcom.com[/email]
Bella Vista 032 340 7821 P1500 [url]www.thebellavistahotel.com[/url]
Hotel Cesario, incl breakfast 340 0211 / 254 9880 ??? [url]www.hotelcesario.com[/url]
Cebu Beach Club , Buyong, Lapu Lapu $55 340 7994 032 495 7717 [email]cbclub@mozcom.com[/email]
Alegre beach [url]www.alegrebeach.com.ph[/url]
Pacific Cebu Resort, Japanese mgmt
Cebu marine Beach Resort 1500 pesos 032 340 5727 suite 4680
Crowne Regency Princevilla / 2400-4000 Very good swimmimg pool, good coffee shop

Thanks everyone for your feedback and hotel information.

Tom.

Kiwi Lodge 1060 G. Tudtud Street, Mabolo 032 232 9550 [email]kiwilodge@pacific.net.ph[/email] 850-1250


Oh, I should add that the the info at Wikipedia travel says that Americans are not welcome, the owner dislikes Americans.

Hmmm, that may be a bit of kiwi humor there, or maybe just trying to scare off the ones who have no clue about sarcasm....

The place is kind of far from the action, but they do have some sheep there. If you're not American, the mgmt will probably let ewe have a go at em...

[QUOTE=X Man]Kiwi Lodge 1060 G. Tudtud Street, Mabolo 032 232 9550 [email]kiwilodge@pacific.net.ph[/email] 850-1250


Oh, I should add that the the info at Wikipedia travel says that Americans are not welcome, the owner dislikes Americans.

Hmmm, that may be a bit of kiwi humor there, or maybe just trying to scare off the ones who have no clue about sarcasm....

The place is kind of far from the action, but they do have some sheep there. If you're not American, the mgmt will probably let ewe have a go at em...[/QUOTE]

Kiwi Lodge not liking Americans might be true. I am from USA and on 3 different trips I stopped by Kiwi Lodge trying to get a room and each time they said they had no vacancy. Just a coincidence?? Hmmmm

[QUOTE=Nightrider1]Kiwi Lodge not liking Americans might be true. I am from USA and on 3 different trips I stopped by Kiwi Lodge trying to get a room and each time they said they had no vacancy. Just a coincidence?? Hmmmm[/QUOTE]I'm an American and have visited Kiwi Lodge on 2 different occasions. The first time I was there just to check it out for future use and ended up drinking at the bar for an hour or two. The second time I stayed there. The place is operated by a New Zealander and his son. The first time I chatted with the father. He couldn't have been friendlier. He did say he had a problem with Koreans staying there in the past. I got a lot of good information from some of the local characters who visit the bar.

The second time I was there, the father was at a resort they own somewhere else on the island. The son was running things and he too was friendly and helpful. They have only a few rooms and are in the process of adding another wing. Also, their prices are quite reasonable. I think that's why it's always full.

As someone mentioned, it's out of the way a bit. About a 15 minute hike to Ayala Center and a cab ride to Mango street. The internet at the hotel and the cybercafe half a block away were extremely slow. Otherwise a good, clean, reasonable place to stay.

[QUOTE=X Man]Kiwi Lodge 1060 G. Tudtud Street, Mabolo 032 232 9550 [email]kiwilodge@pacific.net.ph[/email] 850-1250

The place is kind of far from the action, but they do have some sheep there. If you're not American, the mgmt will probably let ewe have a go at em...[/QUOTE]If so, you should think about bringing those hi rubber boots as you can stick theirs back legs in it so that they can not run away.

since there has been a lot of posted recently about junquera and casa's so i thought i should post this article that in my humble opinion is [b]very[/b] accurate.

[b]oldest prostitution district in the philippines[/b]

[i]i have to be a sexagenarian in order to be embedded in the oldest prostitution district in the country.

in my whole life of almost sixty years, twenty-five years of which were spent as a journalist, i have never really gone inside a red light district.

of course, i have seen the famous red light district of amsterdam, where the women are on display in glass display windows. but it is only from a safe distance. i have just been driven around the blocks in a car by a dutch cousin-in-law and his wife.

i have seen the women for sale in the streets of bangkok. but it is also from afar.

i have walked up and down ermita in manila, pasay, even makati, and seen the women of the night sitting or standing by the doorways of karaoke bars, massage parlors, cheap motels and hotels and other entertainment establishments. again, from a distance.

in kamagayan, cebu, however, i have really gone inside the red light district with field social workers. i have met and talked with the prostitutes and the pimps. i have seen the street watchers, some of whom are minors and the mama sans, some of whom are also sexagenarians. the only people i have not seen are the real owners and their politician protectors.

the story of most prostitutes are the same, they are young, well-protected daughters of decent fathers, mostly poor farmers and fishermen in the smaller and farthest towns of our country. they have reached only grade or high school level. very few are in college. most have run away from home, because of dire poverty, which by united nations definition of poverty is a family, usually of five members, that earns only one dollar a day or even less. they are lured by promises of a recruiter to be given decent work as waitress or sales lady in the city. the family is usually promised a monthly salary of three thousand pesos and the first month's salary is given in advance to the family.

but you can establish a profile of the filipino prostitute. when asked how old they are, they always say they are 18 to about 24. you look at their faces and bodies and many of them are minors. in fact, their ages really range from 14 up to 65. sexagenarians are also in demand, although not as much as children in pre-puberty, whose sexual fluids are supposedly the fountain of youth.

they never tell you their real ages. just as they never tell you where they come from and what are their real names. the names of the same persons even change every night.

at the very outset, here are women living a life of lies, lying to and fighting with others and lying even to themselves. you look into their eyes, and you see hurt and the woundedness of filipino women without a positive self image, without a sense of self worth and without self respect. there is an identity crisis in each and every girl.

for who can accept such a sordid life in such a sordid profession?

cebu is the oldest city in the country, the exact place where portuguese navigator in the service of the spanish crown, ferdinand magellan discovered the philippines for the west. mactan is where lapulapu killed magellan when he got involved in the rivalry between two native chieftains on april 27, 1521. cebu is where the cross of christianity was first planted and the statue of the santo nino was given to the wife of rajah humabon, hara amihan, who was baptized and named queen juana.

and yet baranggay kamagayan in cebu, is the oldest red light district in the philippines.

archival records speak of kamagayan district as early as 1906. periodical records report it as a prostitution district as early as 1920. and it is plausible, because most prostitution districts in the world, from ancient greece up to today, are located at the piers or at the end of the train line. and kamagayan used to be the end of the train stations.

baranggay kamagayan, which has a baranggay center and even a health center that displays prominently information on hiv aids and std diseases, is composed of three blocks, bordered by the streets of junquera, p. del rosario, jakosalem and sanciangco. junquera has been known as the street of prostitution as early as 1920.

junquera is a one way street, but at night, taxis and cars can go against the traffic into the baranggay.

demographically speaking there are about 42 casas or brothels, or prostitution dens here, with about 42 mamasans or den mothers. as of today, they have gone down to 35. they are called ate by the girls, older women oftentimes dressed in dusters and playing cards through the night, or simply sitting around with fans in their hands.

there are about 60 to 80 pimps in one night, those who negotiate with the men for the girls. there are certain rules to follow in the negotiation. when a foreigner arrives in cebu, the taxi driver may ask if the foreigner needs a girl for a night. if the guest agrees, he is brought into kamagayan, really a slum or squatter area in the same taxi. the pimps cover the four streets, together with street watchers. the first pimp that the guest or taxi driver talks to owns the negotiation. so the pimps do not fight over the same commercial transactions.

the girls sit on plastic monobloc benches strewn all over the baranggay, in street corners, in front of houses or casas, and in the small unpaved plaza. i also sat on one of those plastic monobloc chairs, which is really a child’s chair!

when the taxi enters the small plaza clearing, the girls line up. there can be ten to twenty, or fifty to seventy girls in the choral line up. on heavy days, there can be two hundred fifty girls in many different line up. the cheaper girls are in the entry points of the baranggay. the more beautiful ones, the more expensive ones are inside the depths of the baranggay.

the headlights of the taxi flood over the girls in the line-up. then the customer, inside the taxi, chooses his girl. the girl may go with the customer to his pension house, motel, five star hotel, beach resort, or rent any of the casa rooms or cubicles in the baranggay.

in a place called city center, which is actually a market during the day, but turned into a prostitution house for the night, there are cubicles for rent for only twenty to thirty pesos short time. the cubicles are as small as a confessional box, with only a single mattress on the muddy floor, and the walls are made of thin unpainted plywood. you can hear whatever is happening inside.

the cubicle is the most nauseating sight that an advocate for women’s rights and against child abuses could ever see. even i have never felt the same revulsion, when i saw the ancient excavated prostitution houses in pompeii, italy, with pornographic paintings on the walls, and chairs and beds based on stone.

how is ra 9262, the law against violence of women and child abuse, or r.a. 9208, the law against trafficking of women and children applying in this case? the philippines has 500,000 prostitutes in the whole country according to conservative estimate.

nobody knows about r.a. 9208 among the girls. they imagine it as 69. they think that they are the most beautiful girls, from head to toes, and they even have the most beautiful female organ, said straight in the local dialect.

on ordinary days, there are 100, 300 to 500 prostitutes here in cebu. one girl can cost from three hundred to five hundred pesos. but their cost can go down to a measly fifty pesos to one hundred pesos. the first class prostitutes, who in fact do not sit here or join the line, cost about fifteen thousand to seventy thousand pesos.

the official share of this payment from fifty pesos to five hundred pesos is twenty-five percent for the girl, twenty five percent for the pimp, and fifty percent for the mamasan.

the girls do not get their payment in cash, though. it is listed on paper, and used as debt payment for the food, lodging, clothing, make-up, medicine or even drugs that the girls are given. it is worse than five-six. if the girl has no customer, she is not given food. there are many days, when the girls complain that they have not eaten the whole day.

the girls are also forbidden to talk to strangers, even to the customers, and especially to social workers. they are fined when they are caught talking to strangers. the fine is charged against their earning.

kamagayan is busy from eight thirty in the evening up to four thirty at dawn. ironically, it is at dawn that the manangs of cebu walk in a procession praying the rosary in junquera street.

traffic is heavy on certain days, especially paydays on the fifteenth and last day of the month, and when there is a convention in cebu. even charismatic conventions, interdenominational and all kinds of religion is no exemption

most of the clients are construction workers in the lower bracket, teenage students, unfaithful husbands, businessmen, and foreigners in the upper bracket of the economic ladder. most are male clients, but there can also be female customers.

the heaviest traffic is when american troops go on rest and recreation in cebu. then casas all over the country also congregate here. and they can buy whole casas from luzon, or visayas, or mindanao and transport them over here

the cinderella dream of each prostitute, like pretty woman, is to be rescued from this dungeon in a tower, by a knight in shining armor, preferably rich and handsome as richard gere. some foreigners get them as live-in partners and promise them marriage to have a live-in prostitute is cheaper than to get a girl every night. for the customer pays only for food and gifts for the girl. but when the girl gets pregnant, she is sent out of the customer’s house, and even beaten up sometimes.

a fourteen or seventeen-year-old girl had already died, beaten up and stabbed by her customer in the casa. the tragedy lies not just on the meaninglessness of her death. but the fact that nobody knows her real name and where she comes from. her relatives do not know what really happened to her and so she is buried incognito.

as i write this, i put to risk the lives of the girls, the social workers and even myself and my fearless editors. because the knee jerk reaction of government after such a hard-hitting expose as this is to raid the red light district and imprison the girls and the pimps for vagrancy. the under the table fine is one hundred pesos. the real fine is one thousand pesos per girl. never have they caught any owner or a prostitution lord. never have they caught a client in the act.

the girls may be abused by their casa owners and even the police.

the girls will have no business for a few weeks and no food to eat.

kamagayan, the red light district will be quiet.

president gloria macapagal-arroyo suggests the transfer of the department of tourism to cebu. there are many direct flights to and from cebu and other foreign countries. a proportion of any flight manifest from manila consists of male foreigners and filipino girls flying together on a three day vacation, but they are not related to each other. nobody does a julia robert’s act here, pretending to be a niece of the companion.

in bus stations of well known sources of recruitment, a male/female recruiter usually travels with five minors, none of them his or her relatives. the children are also not related to each other. how do you stop them? can you make a citizen’s arrest for intention to commit the crime of trafficking? what if they answer that they are just going on a field trip?

what is the country trying to sell?

tourism or a pound of flesh[/i]

[b]by josephine acosta pasricha[/b]

the girls in the casas are waiting to go to manila, singapore or japan. the amount they have to pay the pimps back start there... and never ends.. some never make it to their destination. the casa's in my opinion are safe to visit. there is no real savings and you can't really see the girls body because they are not in bikinis. the girls may not be up to date on their city health visits.the girls in junquera are definitely not visiting city health every week.

by visiting these places you are taking big risks to save a small amount of money. even more so in junquara.

there are crack downs in junquara and you can be easily set up... the papas/mamasans are just as cracked out as the girls and will turn you in with out a problem. there is no protection there. trying to save a few peso's will cost you a lot more in the long run.

it is just like gambling and listening to gamblers... you only hear about the winnings and never the loses. there are articles in the paper about the busts or killings to the pimp drug attics... you never read about the foreigners being busted because they pay their pay out. that is not to say it does'nt happen.

if you want to go down there to look around and say you where there... have fun.... grab a 40 oz of redhorse and enjoy yourself and watch. it does'nt mean you have to partake. the quality of the girls are the lowest ( worse than blow row in ac ). if you can afford a flight and hotel ... do you really need to save 500 pesos just so you can say you got some pussy for the local price ? ? ? you may wind up getting busted of the chance of an std.

if you are going to casa's or junquara looking for **** girls you will get busted eventually and have everything coming to you ! it may cost you a lot more than money [b]nlm[/b] ( that is me giving you the middle finger )

[size=-2][b][u]editor's note[/u]:[/b] [blue]i certainly hope that the author or somebody else will post a link to this report in the reports of distinction thread. please [url=http://www.internationalsexguide.info/forum/announcement-reportsofdistinction.php?]click here[/url] for more information.[/blue][/size]

Since there has been a lot of posted recently about Junquera and Casa's so I thought I should post this article that in my humble opinion should be read.

Oldest Prostitution District in the Philippines

By Josephine Acosta Pasricha

I have to be a sexagenarian in order to be embedded in the oldest prostitution district in the country.

In my whole life of almost sixty years, twenty-five years of which were spent as a journalist, I have never really gone inside a red light district.

Of course, I have seen the famous red light district of Amsterdam, where the women are on display in glass display windows. But it is only from a safe distance. I have just been driven around the blocks in a car by a Dutch cousin-in-law and his wife.

I have seen the women for sale in the streets of Bangkok. But it is also from afar.

I have walked up and down Ermita in Manila, Pasay, even Makati, and seen the women of the night sitting or standing by the doorways of karaoke bars, massage parlors, cheap motels and hotels and other entertainment establishments. Again, from a distance.

In Kamagayan, Cebu, however, I have really gone inside the red light district with field social workers. I have met and talked with the prostitutes and the pimps. I have seen the street watchers, some of whom are minors and the mama sans, some of whom are also sexagenarians. The only people I have not seen are the real owners and their politician protectors.

The story of most prostitutes are the same, they are young, well-protected daughters of decent fathers, mostly poor farmers and fishermen in the smaller and farthest towns of our country. They have reached only grade or high school level. Very few are in college. Most have run away from home, because of dire poverty, which by United Nations definition of poverty is a family, usually of five members, that earns only one dollar a day or even less. They are lured by promises of a recruiter to be given decent work as waitress or sales lady in the city. The family is usually promised a monthly salary of three thousand pesos and the first month's salary is given in advance to the family.

But you can establish a profile of the Filipino prostitute. When asked how old they are, they always say they are 18 to about 24. You look at their faces and bodies and many of them are minors. In fact, their ages really range from 14 up to 65. Sexagenarians are also in demand, although not as much as children in pre-puberty, whose sexual fluids are supposedly the fountain of youth.

They never tell you their real ages. Just as they never tell you where they come from and what are their real names. The names of the same persons even change every night.

At the very outset, here are women living a life of lies, lying to and fighting with others and lying even to themselves. You look into their eyes, and you see hurt and the woundedness of Filipino women without a positive self image, without a sense of self worth and without self respect. There is an identity crisis in each and every girl.

For who can accept such a sordid life in such a sordid profession?

Cebu is the oldest city in the country, the exact place where Portuguese navigator in the service of the Spanish crown, Ferdinand Magellan discovered the Philippines for the West. Mactan is where Lapulapu killed Magellan when he got involved in the rivalry between two native chieftains on April 27, 1521. Cebu is where the cross of Christianity was first planted and the Statue of the Santo Nino was given to the wife of Rajah Humabon, Hara Amihan, who was baptized and named Queen Juana.

And yet Baranggay Kamagayan in Cebu, is the oldest red light district in the Philippines.

Archival records speak of Kamagayan district as early as 1906. Periodical records report it as a prostitution district as early as 1920. And it is plausible, because most prostitution districts in the world, from ancient Greece up to today, are located at the piers or at the end of the train line. And Kamagayan used to be the end of the train stations.

Baranggay Kamagayan, which has a baranggay center and even a health center that displays prominently information on HIV AIDS and STD diseases, is composed of three blocks, bordered by the streets of Junquera, P. del Rosario, Jakosalem and Sanciangco. Junquera has been known as the street of prostitution as early as 1920.

Junquera is a one way street, but at night, taxis and cars can go against the traffic into the baranggay.

Demographically speaking there are about 42 casas or brothels, or prostitution dens here, with about 42 mamasans or den mothers. As of today, they have gone down to 35. They are called Ate by the girls, older women oftentimes dressed in dusters and playing cards through the night, or simply sitting around with fans in their hands.

There are about 60 to 80 pimps in one night, those who negotiate with the men for the girls. There are certain rules to follow in the negotiation. When a foreigner arrives in Cebu, the taxi driver may ask if the foreigner needs a girl for a night. If the guest agrees, he is brought into Kamagayan, really a slum or squatter area in the same taxi. The pimps cover the four streets, together with street watchers. The first pimp that the guest or taxi driver talks to owns the negotiation. So the pimps do not fight over the same commercial transactions.

The girls sit on plastic monobloc benches strewn all over the baranggay, in street corners, in front of houses or casas, and in the small unpaved plaza. I also sat on one of those plastic monobloc chairs, which is really a child’s chair!

When the taxi enters the small plaza clearing, the girls line up. There can be ten to twenty, or fifty to seventy girls in the choral line up. On heavy days, there can be two hundred fifty girls in many different line up. The cheaper girls are in the entry points of the baranggay. The more beautiful ones, the more expensive ones are inside the depths of the baranggay.

The headlights of the taxi flood over the girls in the line-up. Then the customer, inside the taxi, chooses his girl. The girl may go with the customer to his pension house, motel, five star hotel, beach resort, or rent any of the casa rooms or cubicles in the baranggay.

In a place called City Center, which is actually a market during the day, but turned into a prostitution house for the night, there are cubicles for rent for only twenty to thirty pesos short time. The cubicles are as small as a confessional box, with only a single mattress on the muddy floor, and the walls are made of thin unpainted plywood. You can hear whatever is happening inside.

The cubicle is the most nauseating sight that an advocate for women’s rights and against child abuses could ever see. Even I have never felt the same revulsion, when I saw the ancient excavated prostitution houses in Pompeii, Italy, with pornographic paintings on the walls, and chairs and beds based on stone.

How is RA 9262, the Law Against Violence of Women and Child Abuse, or R.A. 9208, the Law Against Trafficking of Women and Children applying in this case? The Philippines has 500,000 prostitutes in the whole country according to conservative estimate.

Nobody knows about R.A. 9208 among the girls. They imagine it as 69. They think that they are the most beautiful girls, from head to toes, and they even have the most beautiful female organ, said straight in the local dialect.

On ordinary days, there are 100, 300 to 500 prostitutes here in Cebu. One girl can cost from three hundred to five hundred pesos. But their cost can go down to a measly fifty pesos to one hundred pesos. The first class prostitutes, who in fact do not sit here or join the line, cost about fifteen thousand to seventy thousand pesos.

The official share of this payment from fifty pesos to five hundred pesos is twenty-five percent for the girl, twenty five percent for the pimp, and fifty percent for the mamasan.

The girls do not get their payment in cash, though. It is listed on paper, and used as debt payment for the food, lodging, clothing, make-up, medicine or even drugs that the girls are given. It is worse than five-six. If the girl has no customer, she is not given food. There are many days, when the girls complain that they have not eaten the whole day.

The girls are also forbidden to talk to strangers, even to the customers, and especially to social workers. They are fined when they are caught talking to strangers. The fine is charged against their earning.

Kamagayan is busy from eight thirty in the evening up to four thirty at dawn. Ironically, it is at dawn that the manangs of Cebu walk in a procession praying the rosary in Junquera street.

Traffic is heavy on certain days, especially paydays on the fifteenth and last day of the month, and when there is a convention in Cebu. Even charismatic conventions, interdenominational and all kinds of religion is no exemption

Most of the clients are construction workers in the lower bracket, teenage students, unfaithful husbands, businessmen, and foreigners in the upper bracket of the economic ladder. Most are male clients, but there can also be female customers.

The heaviest traffic is when American troops go on rest and recreation in Cebu. Then casas all over the country also congregate here. And they can buy whole casas from Luzon, or Visayas, or Mindanao and transport them over here

The Cinderella dream of each prostitute, like Pretty Woman, is to be rescued from this dungeon in a tower, by a knight in shining armor, preferably rich and handsome as Richard Gere. Some foreigners get them as live-in partners and promise them marriage To have a live-in prostitute is cheaper than to get a girl every night. For the customer pays only for food and gifts for the girl. But when the girl gets pregnant, she is sent out of the customer’s house, and even beaten up sometimes.

A fourteen or seventeen-year-old girl had already died, beaten up and stabbed by her customer in the casa. The tragedy lies not just on the meaninglessness of her death. But the fact that nobody knows her real name and where she comes from. Her relatives do not know what really happened to her and so she is buried incognito.

As I write this, I put to risk the lives of the girls, the social workers and even myself and my fearless editors. Because the knee jerk reaction of government after such a hard-hitting expose as this is to raid the red light district and imprison the girls and the pimps for vagrancy. The under the table fine is one hundred pesos. The real fine is one thousand pesos per girl. Never have they caught any owner or a prostitution lord. Never have they caught a client in the act.

The girls may be abused by their casa owners and even the police.

The girls will have no business for a few weeks and no food to eat.

Kamagayan, the red light district will be quiet.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo suggests the transfer of the Department of Tourism to Cebu. There are many direct flights to and from Cebu and other foreign countries. A proportion of any flight manifest from Manila consists of male foreigners and Filipino girls flying together on a three day vacation, but they are not related to each other. Nobody does a Julia Robert’s act here, pretending to be a niece of the companion.

In bus stations of well known sources of recruitment, a male/female recruiter usually travels with five minors, none of them his or her relatives. The children are also not related to each other. How do you stop them? Can you make a citizen’s arrest for intention to commit the crime of trafficking? What if they answer that they are just going on a field trip?

What is the country trying to sell?

Tourism or a pound of flesh

[size=-2][b][u]EDITOR'S NOTE[/u]:[/b] [blue]I certainly hope that the author or somebody else will post a link to this report in the Reports of Distinction thread. Please [url=http://www.internationalsexguide.info/forum/announcement-reportsofdistinction.php?]Click Here[/url] for more information.[/blue][/size]