Mini-cinema house showing pornographic movies raided

Police raided yesterday a mini-cinema house allegedly showing pornographic movies for a P5 fee along Belgium Street, barangay Suba, and arrested its operator following a call from a woman about the illegal operation.

Eddie Katsila, 35, was arrested for allegedly operating a video house primarily showing pornographic movies that allowed minors to watch, according to SPO1 Adolfo Petallar of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch of the city police.

Petallar told The Freeman that they caught Katsila collecting money from moviegoers as the police swooped down on what appeared to be an abandoned house and saw minors among the half naked adults watching a pornographic movie played on a 29-inch television.

The moviegoers scampered away upon noticing the arriving lawmen, some even managed to flee by climbing the walls. Police, however, managed to collar Katsila and two minors who where then turned over to the barangay hall.

"Dugay na mi nakadawat og reklamo ani, pero on-and-off lagi ang iyang operasyon, maong karon pa namo ni siya maaktuhi," Petallar explained.

Last Friday, Petallar received a complaint from a woman about Katsila's illegal operation but as he verified the report, the mini-cinema house was closed. Yesterday, he again received the same information.

Reports of the Katsila's operation had already reached police attention but according to Petallar, it should have been the barangay officials who acted on it first.

Police confiscated a 29-inch TV set, two speakers, one video compact disc player, an amplifier and several X-rated video compact discs and digital videodiscs during the raid.

Although he admitted to be just the caretaker, Katsila denied operating the mini-cinema house and said that its owner is a certain "Freddie" whose family name he could no longer remember.

But Petallar explained that "Freddie" had already sold the house used as mini-cinema to Katsila a few months ago. - Edwin Ian Melecio