Question about prostitution laws in the Philippines

[Rock]

Hey Mr. S, Lad, Wintson, and others,

I thought prostitution was legal in PI, but apparently I was wrong.

After all the go-gos and brothers have girls who wear government IDs around their necks, get regular mandatory check-ups, and even have special cherry girl status confirmed by the hospitals which do the check-ups.

But according to this article about a bar raid in Angeles, "Philippines brothel raid: Aussies arrested", its NOT legal. So what's the gray area? Is it just a dancing establishment and the girls ostensibly only drink with customers? And what do you make of this Angeles raid?

[Winston]

I think I explained it to you before. Officially prostitution is illegal in the PI. But they allow it cause of the bribes that the bar owners give. Everyone knows its there, but they just let it be. Cops don't like to get involved unless they are organized in a raid like that.

That's why it's called a "barfine". Barfine means you pay a fine for the bar to release the girl from work. So technically you're not paying for sex, even though you are. It's just a loophole or play on words. But everyone knows it's prostitution, or sex for money, whatever you want to call it.

Officially, the PI is Catholic, but how many people do you know there who knows anything about Christian theology, or the Bible, or follows Christian values? How can shameless people who always want to receive and leech from others be Christian? How can people who lie like they breathe be Christian? How can such greedy people be Christian? It's just a label, and means nothing.

There are official trike rates in Angeles too, but none of the drivers follow them. Official things don't mean much.

[Rock]

I think I explained it to you before. Officially prostitution is illegal in the PI. But they allow it cause of the bribes that the bar owners give. Everyone knows its there, but they just let it be. Cops don't like to get involved unless they are organized in a raid like that.

That's why it's called a "barfine". Barfine means you pay a fine for the bar to release the girl from work. So technically you're not paying for sex, even though you are. It's just a loophole or play on words. But everyone knows it's prostitution, or sex for money, whatever you want to call it.

Officially, the PI is Catholic, but how many people do you know there who knows anything about Christian theology, or the Bible, or follows Christian values? How can shameless people who always want to receive and leech from others be Christian? How can people who lie like they breathe be Christian? How can such greedy people be Christian? It's just a label, and means nothing.

There are official trike rates in Angeles too, but none of the drivers follow them. Official things don't mean much.

Actually, staff at a couple bars I visited told me they don't use that term 'barfine' for some reason. They seemed to suggest it had a taboo connotation of some sort. Instead, what they do is calculate the number of standard lady drinks the fee equals (say 10) and call it 10 lady drinks instead even though the drinks don't actually get served. At least that's what someone told me in 'Bar Hoppin'.

BTW, here is the link to the bust: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/825180 ... s-arrested

Do raids like this happen often. What do you think will happen to the 3 foreigners?

[Mr S]

I think I explained it to you before. Officially prostitution is illegal in the PI. But they allow it cause of the bribes that the bar owners give. Everyone knows its there, but they just let it be. Cops don't like to get involved unless they are organized in a raid like that.

That's why it's called a "barfine". Barfine means you pay a fine for the bar to release the girl from work. So technically you're not paying for sex, even though you are. It's just a loophole or play on words. But everyone knows it's prostitution, or sex for money, whatever you want to call it.

Officially, the PI is Catholic, but how many people do you know there who knows anything about Christian theology, or the Bible, or follows Christian values? How can shameless people who always want to receive and leech from others be Christian? How can people who lie like they breathe be Christian? How can such greedy people be Christian? It's just a label, and means nothing.

There are official trike rates in Angeles too, but none of the drivers follow them. Official things don't mean much.

Actually, staff at a couple bars I visited told me they don't use that term 'barfine' for some reason. They seemed to suggest it had a taboo connotation of some sort. Instead, what they do is calculate the number of standard lady drinks the fee equals (say 10) and call it 10 lady drinks instead even though the drinks don't actually get served. At least that's what someone told me in 'Bar Hoppin'.

BTW, here is the link to the bust: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/825180 ... s-arrested

Do raids like this happen often. What do you think will happen to the 3 foreigners?

Some bars call it barfine, others something like checking out where the guy pays for so many shots or drinks that equals a barfine. It's all the same crap. Bars get raided all the time, usually it's when the owner didn't pay the right price or there is a spat with the police or local government. Also some bar owners are at war with each other and will pay off police to raid another's bar, etc, etc. I've personally never been in a bar during a raid but most of my friends have. Most of the time they just want the people working in the bar to be taken off to jail. Occasionally if the media is around they may take in the foreigners too for publicity purposes, but thats rare. Basically they are seeing whether you have your passport or not on you and if you don't they fine you. Just petty ways to make money and settle scores. Most of the guys that own bars are shady characters, most bars are for laundering money so they could care less if they make a profit or not.

Articles written by Western newspapers are misleading. Almost none of the girls are "trafficked", they are there of their own choosing and can come and go. I mean it says the girl said she had to pay for her uniform through sex? Well what the hell do you think your doing in the bar? Yeah, you can just get lady drinks and it may take longer to make money. The mamasan was probably telling her the rules and the girl freaked out and wasn't smart enough to just walk out of the place. Western journalism distorts the news and truth considerably. If easy sex with young girls ever gets pushed out of the country, there ain't much other incentive to visit the place to be honest. Everything else about the place is pretty much a shit hole.

[Rock]

I think I explained it to you before. Officially prostitution is illegal in the PI. But they allow it cause of the bribes that the bar owners give. Everyone knows its there, but they just let it be. Cops don't like to get involved unless they are organized in a raid like that.

That's why it's called a "barfine". Barfine means you pay a fine for the bar to release the girl from work. So technically you're not paying for sex, even though you are. It's just a loophole or play on words. But everyone knows it's prostitution, or sex for money, whatever you want to call it.

Officially, the PI is Catholic, but how many people do you know there who knows anything about Christian theology, or the Bible, or follows Christian values? How can shameless people who always want to receive and leech from others be Christian? How can people who lie like they breathe be Christian? How can such greedy people be Christian? It's just a label, and means nothing.

There are official trike rates in Angeles too, but none of the drivers follow them. Official things don't mean much.

Actually, staff at a couple bars I visited told me they don't use that term 'barfine' for some reason. They seemed to suggest it had a taboo connotation of some sort. Instead, what they do is calculate the number of standard lady drinks the fee equals (say 10) and call it 10 lady drinks instead even though the drinks don't actually get served. At least that's what someone told me in 'Bar Hoppin'.

BTW, here is the link to the bust: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/825180 ... s-arrested

Do raids like this happen often. What do you think will happen to the 3 foreigners?

Some bars call it barfine, others something like checking out where the guy pays for so many shots or drinks that equals a barfine. It's all the same crap. Bars get raided all the time, usually it's when the owner didn't pay the right price or there is a spat with the police or local government. Also some bar owners are at war with each other and will pay off police to raid another's bar, etc, etc. I've personally never been in a bar during a raid but most of my friends have. Most of the time they just want the people working in the bar to be taken off to jail. Occasionally if the media is around they may take in the foreigners too for publicity purposes, but thats rare. Basically they are seeing whether you have your passport or not on you and if you don't they fine you. Just petty ways to make money and settle scores. Most of the guys that own bars are shady characters, most bars are for laundering money so they could care less if they make a profit or not.

Articles written by Western newspapers are misleading. Almost none of the girls are "trafficked", they are there of their own choosing and can come and go. I mean it says the girl said she had to pay for her uniform through sex? Well what the hell do you think your doing in the bar? Yeah, you can just get lady drinks and it may take longer to make money. The mamasan was probably telling her the rules and the girl freaked out and wasn't smart enough to just walk out of the place. Western journalism distorts the news and truth considerably. If easy sex with young girls ever gets pushed out of the country, there ain't much other incentive to visit the place to be honest. Everything else about the place is pretty much a shit hole.

Great explanation, thanks! Presumably, western customers are safe so long as they are with adult girls. But I'm surprised at the harsh sentences recently handed-down to those Swedish web porn operators though.

[Winston]

Some bars call it barfine, others something like checking out where the guy pays for so many shots or drinks that equals a barfine. It's all the same crap. Bars get raided all the time, usually it's when the owner didn't pay the right price or there is a spat with the police or local government. Also some bar owners are at war with each other and will pay off police to raid another's bar, etc, etc. I've personally never been in a bar during a raid but most of my friends have. Most of the time they just want the people working in the bar to be taken off to jail. Occasionally if the media is around they may take in the foreigners too for publicity purposes, but thats rare. Basically they are seeing whether you have your passport or not on you and if you don't they fine you. Just petty ways to make money and settle scores. Most of the guys that own bars are shady characters, most bars are for laundering money so they could care less if they make a profit or not.

Articles written by Western newspapers are misleading. Almost none of the girls are "trafficked", they are there of their own choosing and can come and go. I mean it says the girl said she had to pay for her uniform through sex? Well what the hell do you think your doing in the bar? Yeah, you can just get lady drinks and it may take longer to make money. The mamasan was probably telling her the rules and the girl freaked out and wasn't smart enough to just walk out of the place. Western journalism distorts the news and truth considerably. If easy sex with young girls ever gets pushed out of the country, there ain't much other incentive to visit the place to be honest. Everything else about the place is pretty much a shit hole.

I was thinking the same thing. Most of the bars in AC are empty and the barfines are so high now that guys usually go to the disco high society to get girls than barfine girls in the bars. So how do they keep operating and paying their girls and managers when they must be losing money? So I was suspecting that they are money laundering businesses, kind of like how the car wash in the TV series "Breaking Bad" was used to launder money from the sale of crystal meth. Plus what guy would want to own a business that constantly gets raided? It makes no sense.

Why would you go to jail if you didn't have your passport on you during a raid? There's no law in the Philippines that says that you have to carry your passport everywhere right? I hate having to carry my passport everywhere. In Russia and Ukraine you do or you could get fined and hauled off to the police station.