When Iloilo City ‘night life’ was synonymous to night clubs

By Alex P. Vidal

“If you can handle a nightclub audience successfully, you can handle anything.”—Judy Holliday

SOMETIME in summer of 1996, a Filipino-Chinese businesswoman popularly known as “Tisay” stormed our Sun.Star Iloilo office on Rizal Street, Iloilo City to confront this writer over a story I wrote about her nightclub located on corner Delgado-Iznart streets, City Proper.

The nightclub had been ordered padlocked by City Hall for violation of a city ordinance against indecency and lewd shows days after it was raided by the Task Force Against Prostitution, Drug Addiction, and Lewd Shows headed by Toto Espinosa.

The task force had arrested several female entertainers reportedly caught while dancing in nude.

The nightclub was located some 50 meters away from a Chinese commercial high school and in front of a prominent hotel.

“Wala kami naga pa show sang hublas nga mga babaye. Sala ang gin sulat mo. May misunderstanding lang kami sang task force. Bal an ini tanan ni (Iloilo City Mayor Mansueto Malabor) Mansing,” Tisay berated me in a loud voice. (We don’t have nude shows in our club. Your write-up was wrong. We only had a misunderstanding with the task force and Mansing knew all about this.)

She added: “Kilala taka, Alex Vidal. Taga Hua Siong (name of a Chinese high school) ka man. Sa Hua Siong man nag graduate bata ko. Ang abogado namon taga media man.” (I know you, Alex Vidal. You studied at Hua Shiong just like my son. Our lawyer is also a media practitioner.)

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I told Tisay I based my story on Espinosa’s report to Malabor, not on police blotter.

Ironically, the lawyer Tisay was referring to was the one who had tipped me about the arrest of several nude dancers during the raid because the lawyer was there as a “customer” at the time of the raid.

But I did not tell Tisay about the lawyer, who died of throat cancer 12 years ago and who used to moonlight as newspaper columnist.

I learned later that Tisay had strong connections with Malabor. After several weeks Tisay’s nightclub reopened.

When pressed by City Hall reporters, Malabor admitted he “chided” Espinosa.

City administrator Bebot Geremias told us Malabor was concerned raids on metro night clubs “might kill the night life” in Iloilo City. Many of Tisay’s nightclub customers were transient males doing business in the city.

He replaced Espinosa with City Councilor Erwin “Tongtong” Plagata but not because of the raid in Tisay’s night club.

I remembered this story after it was reported on August 9 that Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Trenas had ordered the “temporary” closure of MO2 Ice in Mandurriao, Iloilo City after a video of a suspected female minor doing a provocative dance had circulated in Iloilo City.

The popular restaurant may have violated the city ordinance that prohibits pornography and lewd shows.

“Temporary” means there could be a penalty if the resto bar was found liable for violations of certain ordinance or ordinances, but closure order was not permanent.

Trenas, a lawyer, would never lower the boom on any establishment without due process.

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I have seen much more bloody melees in the Philippines than the now infamous “boat dock brawl” in Montgomery, Alabama going the rounds in the mainstream and social media.

It’s not even bloody in the truest sense of the word compared to the rumbles I witnessed in the Dinagyang Festival merrymakings in the 70’s and 80’s in Iloilo City and in the gang wars in our village where combatants used Indian Pana and balisong to maim each other.

But Alabama police have issued four arrest warrants for individuals involved in that large brawl on a boat dock that has captivated the internet, CNN reported.

Videos of the incident show a Black dock employee engaging with a group of White boaters on the dock, who then get physical and start hitting him.

Footage of the chaotic fight went viral online as it escalated with punches being thrown, people being hit with chairs and at least one person being tossed into the water.

“Those who choose violence will be held accountable by our criminal justice system,” Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said in a statement quoted by CNN. The Montgomery Police Department’s chief along with the city’s mayor plan to hold a news conference to offer more information on the incident.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)