LAS Vegas KTV Music Lounge in Cebu City remains padlocked.
The Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board (Caib) denied the motion for reconsideration of the establishment, which Mayor Michael Rama ordered closed for one year for violating an ordinance against nude shows.
“The board, upon careful evaluation, finds the same bereft of merit,” said Dr. Lucille A. Mercado, Caib chairperson, in a letter.
Inocencio dela Cerna, lawyer of Las Vegas, said they will take the matter to court.
Mercado recommended the closure of the bar for violating City Ordinance 1408, which prohibits indecent and lewd shows in bars.
Rama said Caib’s ruling and decision were just.
“I cannot see overruling Caib’s decision,” he said.
Last Dec. 20, members of Caib and the Prevention Restoration Order Beautification and Enhancement padlocked the bar.
The bar is on the second floor of APM Square at the North Reclamation Area in Barangay Mabolo.
City’s message
Mercado said they placed the bar under surveillance on four occasions last year and witnessed lewd shows.
Caib used these findings to recommend to the mayor the bar’s closure.
But dela Cerna said the closure was enforced without affording his clients due process.
Section 4 of City Ordinance 1408 provides that “in no case shall a decision be rendered by the board without appropriate notice and hearing conducted in accordance with the principle of due process.”
The bar owners, in their motion for reconsideration, said the mayor’s office merely relied on the resolution of Caib as basis for issuing the closure order.
The owners also said they adhered to City Hall’s policy of “no lewd and obscene performances.”
Rama said the City’s decision not to consider the bar owners’ request is a message to all business establishments that the City is serious in its campaign against lewd shows.