Four days after a sex gadget shop that promised “guaranteed satisfaction” opened at a new Bacolod City mall, drawing numerous customers and curious onlookers, authorities raided the establishment at  9:45 a.m. yesterday.

Vibrators, condoms, sex dolls, and other paraphernalia were seized by Police Station 2  and City Legal Office personnel from 577 China Commercial on the second floor of the 888 Chinatown Square at Gatuslao Street, Bacolod.

Police Station 2 commander, Senior Inspector Luisito Acebuche, said they coordinated with the CLO to stop the sale of the sex gadgets after receiving numerous complaints from people who saw what the shop was selling.

The police bought a gadget for P500 from Luigi Tan  before they moved in and confiscated the shop’s merchandise that were displayed in  plain view to passersby, Acebuche said.

Tan said he did not know how much the boxes and packs of sex materials cost but Acebuche estimated them to be worth several thousands, with one inflatable female doll valued at about P6,000.

The display and sale of the sex gadgets are in violation of the Article 201 of the Revised Penal Code as amended by Presidential Decree No’s. 960 and 969, prohibiting the show, sale, and distribution of pornographic materials, Acebuche said.

Penalty for the offense ranges from a prison term of six years or a fine of P6,000 to P12,000, or both, he added.

Lawyer Vicente Petierre III of the CLO said that aside from violating national laws, the shop was also operating without the necessary permits from the city’s permits and licensing division.

Ardis Jaculina, head of the permits and licensing division, said the outfit does not have  official authorization or a pending application for a permit.

Tan, who, the Chinatown Square management said, also uses the surname Chan, meanwhile, told the police and reporters he was just asked by the shop’s owner and his “friend”, a certain Diosa Achieverra from Iloilo City, to manage it “for a few days.”

Chan was released by the police but they will file charges against him and Achieverra, Acebuche said.

Carlson Ty, executive vice-president for operations of 888 Chinatown Square, said Achieverra, whose last name in their records is Achenova, is Chan’s wife.           

Ty said they had been requesting Chan to “at least” cover the transparent shelves where the gadgets were displayed since their first day of operation after they received complaints from a number of their tenants whose patrons were offended by the display of the merchandise.

He said the shop’s owners, in their application for a stall, listed the products they would sell as “dry goods” and did not mention sex gadgets.

We will no longer allow Achenova to conduct business at the mall after the incident, Ty said.

“We will now be more strict in inspecting the merchandise of our tenants,” he added.

Ty also assured the public the display of such sex gadgets at the mall would not happen again because they want their establishment to be  “child-friendly.”

Petierre said the mall management could not be held liable for the offense because it did not know of the actual products that the shop owners would sell when they rented them space since they did not  declare them in their application.

Fr. Aniceto Buenafe, head of the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Bacolod, said business proprietors “must be sensitive enough” and respect the “highly conservative and religious” culture of most Filipinos.

Such commercial ventures “promote extreme liberalization” and they could send the wrong message to consumers, especially the youth, and contribute to moral degradation, he said.

Buenafe also called on parents “to inculcate the right and correct moral values in their children” and remind them that while people have the freedom to go wherever they want, they also have the responsibility to be wary of the things that they encounter.*PP

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