LAPU-LAPU CITY - Mayor Paz Radaza here has ordered the City Health Officer to inspect the various massage parlors and spas in the city located on the island of Mactan to ensure that no such establishments here are being used as a front for prostitution.
Radaza made the order following reports that there are lingam spas operating in the city of Lapu-Lapu. Lingam spas are now in the spotlight after several groups claimed some of these spas are used as prostitution fronts.
As a lady mayor, Radaza said she doesn't want Lapu-Lapu City's name to be tarnished with reports of spas and massage parlors being used as prostitution dens. Thus, she is urging the city council to pass a resolution that would create the Lapu-Lapu City Anti-Indecency Board.
Earlier, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia called for regulation, if not outright cessation of ''lingam,'' a kind of service in local spas which involves massaging men's private parts as, she said, this kind of massage may lead to prostitution.
''This lingam massage is one form of indecency that must be seriously looked into and we, at the Provincial Women's Commission (PWC), will continue to advocate its limitation, if not its complete stoppage,'' Garcia, who co-chairs the Commission, said.
The PWC, through Provincial Board (PB) Member Agnes Magpale, asked Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes to investigate lingam massage parlors in his city. Cortes ordered the temporary closure of two massage parlors in Mandaue City for the lack of permits.
''You are hereby requested to cease and desist from operating your establishment until after all proper permits have been acquired,'' read the mayor's order Friday to the staff of 789 Thai Lingam Massage on A. Cortes St. in Barangay Cambaro, and Authentic Lingam Massage in Barangay Bakilid, 10 kilometers away from the first establishment.
The Governor warned against the operation of lingam message parlors, citing the Women Development Code of the Province, as she commended Magpale and Cortes for acting on a complaint against a lingam massage parlor.
''Do we want to be identified as the lingam capital of the Philippines? It desecrates the dignity of Cebuana women'' Garcia said.
The governor also belittled the therapeutic claims of lingam massage.
