Prostitution spreads in paradise

The Garapan red district is rife with prostitution. However, pimps and prostitutes have withdrawn from the streets since last Friday night. Nonetheless, the flesh trade business is taken to yet another level–the focus is now on Order and Delivery basis. In other words, you call a certain number and your order is delivered in about half-an-hour.

Prostitution has spread like wild grass fire it’s awfully hard putting it out with regular law enforcement officers. The disappearance of women from the red district simply means the operation has gone underground. It also means that somewhere between law enforcement and the task force squad someone has warned flesh trade king pins that something’s coming down the pike–clear the streets!

For as long as this image is seen nightly in the red district, tourism in these isles would be closely associated with criminal elements from Japan and nearby Asian countries. It is a highly negative image of a tropical island setting far removed from the ideal destination for family vacations. It’s instantly seen as a venue for criminal elements. Thus, we can kiss tourism off for now.

Prostitution isn’t limited to young women from here who flock the red mdistrict at night. You see them everyday, some of whom hail from Tokyo, Osaka, Manila, Hong Kong, Thailand, and nearby Guam. Tinian is another venue flocked by women from here who take the ferry at the wee hours of the morning on orders to service criminal elements in hotels. Otherwise, they are out there looking for customers. As the morning hours wears off so does the price for a quickie! Well, welcome to the ‘big time’!

San Antonio Village is another venue right in front of a small grocery store where strange drivers on tinted vans and sedans pick up girls and ferry them to a certain place. It’s an interesting scenario although the drivers were once beaten for telling young girls that locals are bad customers “because they don’t have money”. And so I see these cars make quick pick-ups, fleeing the area for fear of being slammed by young village punks.

In recent months, I attended a funeral of a friend on Tinian. As I waited for my return flight home, six Japanese girls in the holding area were struggling to stay awake. For a while I thought they must have been up all night playing poker. Nah, a friend from Tinian related they were there to service a certain yakuza group who came in for rest and recreation.

Well, the only way to send a clear message to king pins and peddlers of the flesh and drug industry is to ban prostitution altogether. Let’s take it a step further: the glamour industry must work with DPS and interpol for a list of criminal elements from Japan and Asian countries with the view to reboarding them as soon as they arrive. If it is our desire to keep this industry clean and really turn into a family destination, then these are two measures that must be taken up with resolve right here and now!

Strictly a personal view. John S. DelRosario Jr. is publisher of Saipan Tribune.