Club owners decry illegal raid

Operators of Lumina Club Inc. have filed a complaint with the National Police Commission against an anti-narcotics team that raided its premises without any mission order or search warrant, frisking and exposing innocent parties to TV cameras, complete with sniffing police dogs – without finding any evidence.

The raid was conducted last Saturday night on the entertainment club located on the ground floor of Sir Williams Hotel on Timog Avenue, Quezon City. The team was accompanied by a supposed "asset" and a truck to haul off alleged drug pushers or users.

Club operators asked the team to produce a mission order or search warrant, but the raiders said "later." The club guests were forced to line up for frisking, while three police dogs went around sniffing for drugs. But all turned up negative.

Club operators complained that TV stations had a field day that weekend reporting on the police raid with shots of scared club patrons trying to hide their faces from the camera or running away from the club premises.

As a result of the police raid, the club lost about P30,000 that night, representing unpaid customers’ bills.