Grounded morals

THE current of events in Angeles City of late flowed through the moral stream. Or so it seemed.

Two pregnant women, along with three others, were rescued by the Angeles City police in a raid on a suspected cyber porn den in Balibago last week.

The news report cited city top cop Sonny Cunanan as saying he “believed that the two women became pregnant after performing live sex acts with male partners.” (Last time I looked, only women still get pregnant through live sex acts with male partners, but of course.) How Cunanan deemed that as a matter of faith, the news story did not say.

He warned though that the raid was “only the start of their campaign against similar establishments perpetrating pornographic activities and exploiting women in the city.”

So, the Area will come next? Ah, that will be the day!

Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno will most certainly carve himself a niche not only in the annals of history but even in the chronicles of morality if he will successfully padlock – once and for all – the Area which has survived the Japanese Imperial Army, the American re-occupation forces, periodic economic dislocation in the city, a number of arson incidents, and the ravages of the Mt. Pinatubo eruptions.

For the clueless, the Area comprises a colony of shanties near the Pampang Public Market catering to the carnal desires of the sweating class.

Vice is evidently Mr. Blueboy’s pet peeve.

Last week, the decades-old Angeles Cockpit Arena in Barangay Claro M. Recto was served a closure order issued by the mayor.

Non-payment of the palisada or fixing fees and its bularit weekday operations allegedly without validly issued permits “in violation of Presidential Decree 449, as amended, and Ordinance 22 Series of 1992.”

On the surface, the closure order is highly debatable, given the contention of the operator, Val Lagman, that all his papers as well as his operations were in order.

Underneath the veneer of legality, the motive behind the closure order was highly suspect: Lagman known as a staunch ally of CongressmanTarzan Lazatin, Nepomuceno’s political adversary.

Lagman’s “Mister Sabong” moniker is well-deserved. He has not only popularized the sport in the province but lifted its standards to the fairest gentlemanly levels, totally neutralizing the tiyope scams and other forms of cheating.

Thus, the closure order – to cockfighting aficionados – smacks of political vendetta.

“Mayor Blueboy is clearing the infrastructure of vice in the city of people identified with Cong Tarzan. Before Val, there was the raid on the small-town lottery stations whose operators were allegedly Lazatin associates. Talagang gusto lang ipalit ni Blue ang kanyang mga bata sa nagpapalakad ng mga sugal dito.” So claimed a sabungero ascertaining political payback as the real motive behind Mayor Blueboy’s actions.

Still, I will give the mayor not only the benefit of the doubt but even the repository of my faith: That he is in earnest pursuit of his campaign promise”Ibalik ang dangal ng Angeles!”

Vice dishonors the city. Something’s got to be done about it. Thus the raid on the cyber porn den and the closure of gambling lairs. Good act, Mister Blueboy!

But, a big BUT, what is this we read that those nabbed in the porn raid have all been set loose – with only the confiscated sex toys remaining in police custody; as indeed those taken from the STL betting stations did not even stay long enough to cry “hulidap” at the police precincts. The city prosecutors not finding in both occasions any legal basis to hold them, much less file a case against any of them.

Come to think of it: the STL is legal, and there is no such thing as cyber porn in the crime books, assured my lawyer friend – not the one of “Don’t call me madam, call me attorney” fame.

Ain’t crimeless victimless,and vice-versa? So asked another friend, a four-time bar-flunker we fondly call CPA. (That’s for cannot pass anymore, dummy.)

Still the best wit over these events of late came from Jocjoc, the friendly bugaw at the Area: “Ang dangal na ibinabalik ni Blueboy ay nadidal dahil ang layon nito’y hindi dalisay.”

Touché.