Viva Cinema ordered padlocked by Malonzo

Caloocan City Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo ordered yesterday the closure of a movie house in a local department store after receiving complaints that it has become a favorite "hunting ground" of male and female commercial sex workers on the prowl for customers.

The closure order was personally served by City Administrator Mamerto Marahan to the owners of Viva Cinema located at the second level of the Parco Department Store near the LRT North Terminal along Rizal Avenue Extension following the arrest yesterday of 40 minors caught watching a sexy adult film in the theater.

Manahan said the Viva Cinema management also failed to comply with the existing fire code and sanitation standards placing moviegoers at great risk.

It was gathered that the arrested minors were caught by City Hall personnel watching a local sexy movie contrary to a warning at the cinema’s ticket booth stating that the movie being screened was "For Adults Only."

One of the minors caught in the raid admitted to police investigators that he was working and taking a fee of P200 in exchange for oral sex from interested moviegoers.

Meanwhile, a former Caloocan City policeman, lately elected as president of a Caloocan jeepney driver’s association, was shot and killed by his own cousin-in-law in an ambush yesterday morning, the police said.

Killed on the spot due to three gunshot wounds in the head and body was Alfredo Bacalso, 37, president of the Novaliches-Deparo-Bagumbong Jeepney Operators and Drivers Association (BAJODA). – Jerry Botial