Lack of funds impede fight against prostitution

After two weeks of undercover work, a combined team of police, labor and immigration officers swooped down on bars and karaoke clubs in the main tourists district of Garapan last Thursday evening.

The result: 15 people were arrested — eight women and seven men for soliciting prostitution. Six police officers assigned in the Operation Red Light III did all the surveillance work before the crackdown was launched.

A team of 21 police officers and 17 personnel from the Department of Labor and Immigration started the operation at around 9:15 p.m.

Amid the growing prostitution problem in the main tourist district, an anti-prostitution drive was launched by the Department of Public Safety this year.

But the police admitted that they cannot do it alone. DPS has asked the assistance of DOLI to check on the licenses of businesses and work permits of the workers in these establishments.

“We may not be able to eliminate the problem but at least we can get rid of people who commit prostitution,” said Maj. Clyde Norita, assistant chief of the Office for Special Services of DPS. Norita admitted that promoting and soliciting prostitution would be difficult to prove because this would entail a lot of undercover work, and funding.

With the slowdown in the island’s tourism economy, club owners have become more aggressive in running after customers, most of the time dragging the tourists to enter their establishments.

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce and the Hotel Association of Northern Mariana Islands frowned on the growing flesh trade and have expressed concerns on the effect of prostitution on the tourism industry. Even the Marianas Visitors Authority has said this might scare away the family market, targeted by the tourism industry.

“These establishments have been here for sometime but we cannot tolerate the new style of forcing customers to enter the bars. They seem desperate for customers now,” said Norita.

Beset with funding problems, DPS cannot regularly conduct raids. Norita said he would have recommended additional money for anti- prostitution and gambling operations on the island if there were sufficient resources.

“Enforcement alone will not solve the problem. We need everybody’s help to throw the book on these people,” he said. Even tour operators have recently volunteered their assistance posing as tourists just to gather information needed by police.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio had earlier asked government agencies to strengthen cooperation and efforts in clamping down on the proliferation of prostitution on the island. The chief executive’s concern was based on allegations that Asian women, mostly Chinese and Filipinos, are being smuggled into the Northern Marianas and sold as prostitutes to brothels.