Night club after night club

In January, the court sentenced the owners of Red Heart Massage and Mayi Club—located along Beach Road in Garapan—to three years of imprisonment, for bringing in young women to Saipan and force them to become prostitutes. But just a month or two later, the same spot where Red Heart Massage and Mayi Club once stood is alive again! This time, it’s called RAINBOW club (or bar). true to its name, this supposedly new business is more colorful than its predecessor.

The judge who presided over the Red Heart Massage case, Associate Judge Kenneth Govendo, revoked permanently the business license of Red Heart Massage owner, Edward Cabrera. I assume he’s not the owner of Rainbow, or is he?

“Prostitution is all over the place. When you’re in Garapan, you will see pimps and prostitutes, yet we have very, very strong and serious laws about prostitution. The government has to send a message to the community — that they know what’s going on and they will do everything to stop it,” local newspapers quoted Judge Govendo as saying.

If one night club or massage parlor closes due to prostitution or any other violations, only to have another to take over its place, it appears there really is a market for such type of business here on the small island of Saipan. And otherwise, you won’t see girls in skimpy or sexy clothes waiting for customers on street corners in Garapan.

For whatever reason, despite the government’s so called effort to curb prostitution or the appearance of it, there is still prostitution, (now cheaper, some say because of the economy) although we read in the papers that from time to time there are women arrested for ‘soliciting’.

(speaking of bad economy, I was told other women sell themselves NOW but customers would pay LATER--after the customers receive their salaries. this applies to customers who are working on saipan, whether as resident or guest worker)

Remember the Starlite Club in Garapan, which recruited minors from the Philippines to strip dance? That club’s right across a police station for years and yet the abuses were supposedly discovered ONLY last year. And it was not discovered by chance by any police officer, but only after the minors and other women ran away from their employers.

(to be continued…)

Ms. Magazine's at it again!

Early this month, in time for the Feb. 8 hearing in Washington, D.C. on CNMI labor, immigration, law enforcement and economy, Ms. Magazine--the same national publication that carried a story in 2006 depicting Saipan as a "paradise lost" due to labor and immigration abuses, among other things--published online the story of Kayleen D. Entena. Entena, a young woman from the Philippines who was forced to work in a brothel in the CNMI, testified to the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in support of bringing the CNMI under U.S. immigration control.

Ms. Magazine published online other stories about the CNMI early this month. Ms. magazine said its investigative report on the Mariana Islands brought these abuses to the nation's attention last spring and generated widespread public outrage. It revisited the 2006 article titled "Paradise Lost: Greed, Sex Slavery, Forced Abortions and Right-Wing Moralists" by Rebecca Clarren.

For the complete text of these articles, visit www.msmagazine.com

But just like Ms. Magazine's 2006 article, its recent coverages have not elaborated on what CNMI and federal government agencies have done to help reduce labor and immigration abuses in the past years.