TWO Cebu City councilors want to regulate lingam services in the city by limiting it to medical clinics that will be required to secure accreditation from different government agencies.
Councilors Ronald Cuenco and Jose Daluz III also want lingam clinics managed by medical doctors to ensure the therapeutic massage is administered scientifically and properly.
In a resolution, the councilors said lingam services should not be prohibited and should only be regulated.
“Lingam should be done in a clinic, not in massage parlors because they don’t have the technology, expertise and technical know-how. And in the clinics, there should be a doctor who would oversee it,” Daluz said in an interview.
Although some sectors oppose the lingam service because it could lead to prostitution, he said he would give the lingam massage operators the benefit of the doubt when they claim it is an accepted form of therapy that reduces stress and keeps the prostate
healthy.
“We won’t conclude that prostitution is involved in lingam massages and that it promotes sex trafficking. If they say it’s legitimate and therapeutic, then we will regulate it,” said Daluz.
In the proposed resolution, he and Cuenco want the City to require lingam massage operators to secure accreditation from the Department of Health, City Health Department, Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care, the Department of Tourism and other agencies involved in the medical tourism industry.
They also want lingam operators to hire a licensed medical professional, such a doctor or a nurse, preferably those engaged in or familiar with the practice of traditional and alternative health care.
The City Council is expected to tackle the resolution during its session tomorrow morning.
According to the Provincial Women's Commission, lingam massage is a “man’s massage that is done by massaging, pressing, rubbing or stroking a man’s pressure point and prostate gland through the rectal wall.”
Lingam is a Sanskrit word for the male sexual organ. (LCR)