The Cebu City government shut down a bikini bar in Mango Avenue after the Regional Trial Court found three of its female workers guilty of human trafficking.
A closure order on Red Lips Bikini Bar was implemented yesterday afternoon.
The bar was raided by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation last June 2012.
The city government issued the closure order in line with a board resolution of the Cebu City Inter Agency Council Against Trafficking in Person and Cebu City Ordinance 2163.
A business permit and license of any establishments engaging in human trafficking will be cancelled under the ordinance.
Cebu City Councilor Leah Japson, head of council, said the agency has already received a copy of the court’s decision.
Japson recalled that the International Justice Mission started monitoring the bar after receiving reports that the bar was involved in human trafficking.
During the surveillance, it was learned that a customer had to pay a bar fine of P2,000 to P6,000 to take out a female worker.
During the raid, NBI agents rescued 26 female workers.
Most of the women had applied as waitresses but were later made to work as dancers.
Under RA 9208, it is unlawful for a person “to recruit, transport, transfer; harbor, provide, or receive a person by any means, including those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment or training or apprenticeship, for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage.”
The law was amended by RA 10364 in 2013, which does not give offenders the confidentiality clause they enjoyed while RA 9208 was in effect. The amended version also assures immunity for individuals who rescue victims of trafficking.
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