The Makati City government padlocked a KTV bar inside a hotel situated near the city’s Central Business District for having engaged in sex trafficking.
The city’s Business Permit and Licensing Office shut down the KTV Bar at a penthouse of Makati Palace Hotel along Burgos Street in Barangay Bel-Air following a police raid Friday. Two Taiwanese nationals were found operating an alleged prostitution den.
City Administrator Claro Certeza and Chief Legal Officer Michael Arthur Camina signed the closure order, citing the KTV bar owners Shih Fang Chen, 65, and Po Yi Chen, 55, violated the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012 and Section 4A.01 of the Revised Makati Revenue Code or operating without a mayor’s permit.
Aside from the owners, 14 Chinese customers—all employees of a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator company—were also placed under police custody.
Police raided the KTV bar after they received a tip from an informant regarding the illegal activities, involving POGO workers, inside the establishment.
Thirteen Filipino women were rescued during the police operation and brought to the city’s Social Welfare and Development Office.
Last year, two Chinese nationals were also arrested in Makati on charges of sex trafficking Vietnamese women.
The National Capital Region Police Office busted the racket following confidential information regarding a sex trade involving foreign nationals in Barangay San Antonio.
The suspects, identified as Kuang Meiting and Li Xuemei, were arrested in an entrapment operation conducted by men from the NCRPO-Regional Special Operations Unit and Women, and Children Protection Division-Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division in coordination with personnel from the Makati City Police Station.
The authorities swooped down room numbers 519, 803, 924, and 1823 of Avida Asten Tower 2 located along Malugay Street and rescued six Vietnamese women.
The city government had declared an indefinite moratorium on the issuance of new business licenses and permits to service providers of POGO due to rising criminality and prostitution.
“We would no longer accept new applications for POGO service providers and crack down hard against illegal activities that are catering to POGOs and their employees within Makati,” said Mayor Abigail Binay.
The city chief executive cited the “overheating” market for residential and commercial space and the rising criminality and prostitution as major reasons for her her decision to stop more POGOs from operating in the country’s financial district.