THE six women rescued from a massage parlor and spa in Barangay Hipodromo, Cebu City by a joint team led by the Women and Children Protection Center-Visayas Field Unit (WCPC-VFU) were reportedly forced by the establishment’s owners to provide sexual services for their clients in exchange for money.
“We were able to establish what they were doing through one of our agents doing undercover at their establishment. They usually offer their sexual services online. What the customer does is to visit their website and make their transaction there,” Lt. Col. Raul Bolido told SunStar Cebu.
Bolido, who heads the WCPC-VFU, did not divulge the identities of the rescued women but he did identify the two women they took in custody for operating the establishment.
Bolido said they received initial information that massage therapists were offering sexual services worth P3,000 or more.
According to him, once a customer concluded the transaction through the establishment’s website, he could visit the establishment on Mactan St. at the Ayala Access Road and consummate the service there.
I won’t write down the names of the two women police arrested because I actually feel sorry for them.
For all intents and purposes, they might have been ignorant of what was going on inside the cubicle where the customer took advantage of the, well, extra services the massage therapist offered.
I mean, how would the two women know? It’s not like security cameras were installed inside each cubicle.
Don’t get me wrong. I was not born yesterday. But let me remind the public who now brand these two female operators as criminals because of their arrest. The two women did not con anyone. They did not steal from anyone. They did not harm anyone. They did not kill anyone. But most importantly, they were not the ones offering sexual services.
Granted, they might have provided lotion or essential oils to the massage therapists, handed clean towels, or offered hot tea—I don’t know, I’m just guessing—but basically they were there to facilitate the transaction, to make the visit as enjoyable as possible.
After all, customers do not frequent such establishments because they want their lives to be difficult. No. They go there to relax, to take the weight of the world off their shoulders. They avail themselves of the massage therapists’ services so they can have some release.
Cathartic or otherwise.
As for the police’s claim that the massage therapists were being forced to provide sexual services, why, did management have guns to their heads? Were their families being held hostage? Were they kept prisoners inside the establishment?
I didn’t think so.