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Saturday, September 27, 2003
Drive v. erring computer centers intensified
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
ANOTHER computer gaming shop, which allowed students to play inside its premises during school hours, was raided by a police and City Government team at New Lucban last Thursday afternoon.
The act of allowing students to play and engage in other activities during school hours is in gross violation of City Ordinance 015-2000.
With five minors reportedly apprehended during that surprise raid, plus another 17 caught in a series of raids conducted along Assumption Road last Monday afternoon, a total of 22 students and out-of-school youths have already been referred to the City Social Welfare & Development Office (CSWDO) at the Silungan Center since the start of the renewed and intensified campaign this week.
Senior Insp. Elmer Ragay, chief of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) Intelligence & Investigation Branch, said that a loose firearm was even confiscated after being found in the possession of a teenaged student in one of the raids.
The raided establishment was identified in a report Friday to Supt. Francisco Manalo Jr., BCPO director, as the PP Computer Shop located along Lucban Road.
Insp. Ma. Theresa Guinto - Pucay, chief of the BCPO Women & Children Concerns Section, reported Friday that the raiding team was composed of Benjie Macadangdang of the City Mayor's Office, PO2 Eugene Melendez of the BCPO-IIB and personnel from her office.
This series of raids and surprise inspections on computer gaming shops and other amusement centers operating in the city was renewed and intensified with the rising clamor of concerned parents against the mushrooming of erring establishments city-wide.
This developed, just as Vice Mayor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, in an earlier Sun.Star report, also admitted that the City Council must seek amendments to COB 015-2000, in order to give this local law "more teeth."
"With the proliferation of commercial buildings all over the country, including the city of Baguio, which usually house amusement centers that can necessarily be accessed by minors and school children to the detriment of their studies and development, there is a need to regulate the operations and maintenance of such entertainment and amusement facilities in Baguio, which has grown into an educational center of the north, in order to safeguard the welfare of these minors and school children," it was explained.
However, under Section 4 of the said ordinance, the only penalty provided was the imposition of a P1,000 fine for the commission of a first offense, the collection of a P2,000 fine for the second offense and the collection of a P5,000 fine plus revocation of the erring establishment's business permit for the third and succeeding violations "upon conviction."
"We must emphasize that the computer gaming units (of these erring amusement centers) must also be confiscated," Tabanda emphasized Friday.
The said ordinance defines amusement centers as an establishment that allows customers to operate or play with computer machines, kiddie rides, redemption machines, bump cars, canoe rides, computer internet machines and the like for a fee.
Among the conditions provided under COB 015-2000 for the operation of these amusement centers was that no person below 12 years of age shall be allowed to enter any amusement center during its office hours except when accompanied by his or her parent or guardian.
Aside from that, any minor below 18 years of age and is enrolled in school, shall not be allowed to enter the amusement centers during school hours even if they are accompanied by his or her parent or guardian.
But according to several concerned parents who complained in the past days, "many of these computer gaming centers allow students and out-of-school youths to play inside their establishments even during school hours and without any adult supervision."
"Instead of spending the allowance that we give our children for their food and other necessities, they waste their money in these computer gaming centers. At worse, they even skip their classes just to play in these computer gaming centers," other parents claimed.
"The law only penalizes these amusement and computer gaming operators with a minimal fine and we cannot do anything to prevent them from operating unless we conduct surveillance on their establishments for the whole day while they are opened. How can we do our other crime-fighting duties if we resort to that," one ranking police officer reasoned out.
Among the establishments inspected by the composite BCPO team along Assumption Road on Monday afternoon were the Hunters Tauli Computer Shop, the Game Zone Computer Shop, the Net UB Computer Shop and the Xylucom Computer Shop.
"The owners of these establishments were all charged for their alleged violation of COB 015-2000 and these cases were prepared for transmittal to the City Prosecutor's Office," reported Insp. Pucay.
(September 27, 2003 issue)
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