“For my friends and I we earn our money to party. our allowance that are (sic) parents give us.”

It’s still your parents’ money, even if they gave you some of it. THEY earned it, not you.

“Even fraternity has a strong in pact (sic) with other police mans (sic) and people that has (sic) power.”

The so-called “fraternities” in Baguio give honest-to-goodness fraternities a bad name. The ones here are mere gangs of young hoodlums, recruiting minors as young as those who are still in elementary levels. In fact, they have not even come up with original names, choosing instead to mimic American street gangs like Bloods and Crips. At last the city has started asking them to behave. These young thugs should have been put in their place from the very beginning and been given lessons to learn whenever they exhibited criminal behavior.

That some of these hoodlum-members are sons of policemen gives them that “connection” and that cheekiness (read “kapal ng mukha”). Don’t tell me that this is right, or this is the way a civilized society should behave.

I ask you now, is this how you want life to be, for folks to be able to commit illegal acts because they are “protected?” Is it fun to be tough? Is it nice to have a boyfriend who has scars on his face, whose claim to fame is how he did not die in a fight? In the end, what is this all for? Mere fun? You think your parents raised you to be in constant danger? You think they are investing their life’s work in you so you can drink and dance and be merry?

“Probably our (sic) just jealous because a lot of people rather go to Nevada Squire (sic) than your bar that you own out side (sic) Nevada.”

Hahaha, after Nevada, I set up a hotel, dearest, not a bar. And I am NEVER jealous of anyone’s success. I openly admire folks who come up with brilliant ideas and love social entrepreneurs but cannot stand those who earn through illegal, immoral and irresponsible means.

Finally, in response to your follow up comment: I blog for many reasons — read the other posts. You’ll get the idea. One of the benefits of blogging is to be able to reach someone like you.

For YOU to have a voice.

I do remember how it was to be a teenager, and I did listen to my peers more than my parents. But we have to remember that our parents were teenagers, too, and did the things we did (although they keep insisting their time was not as wild as ours).

And one day you will find that you are my age and shaking your head at the dangerous situations the teens find themselves in. I guess we all have to go through this cycle of life. But adults, especially those who own bars, and of course the teenagers’ parents, HAVE THE DUTY TO PROTECT THEM, and not be the ones who put them in danger by acting irresponsibly.

How funny that we all seek peace in our lives, and most of us find it sooner or later. Better to find it sooner.

And for all teenagers out there — you do not know how it is to “party” yet (as I found out too). The feeling of partying WITH YOUR OWN MONEY, MONEY YOU WORKED FOR AND EARNED is so much better, so study, get a job, then party! By that time it is hoped that you will have enough wisdom to have fun without putting yourself in danger.

Partying with your parents’ money is kinda lame. Believe me.

I’m happy that you are out of Baguio City, and that you got out alive and unscathed. In the States the young cannot drink or go to bars. And this response is for all the young like you who happen to read this.

All teenagers are not necessarily troublemakers — it’s just that you cannot handle alcohol and adult situations yet like more mature folks can.

It boggles my mind how parents and guardians in the city are so uncaring about the welfare of their children that minors and jobless young adults (college students) are “entitled” to a night life, to be drinking, to be put in harm’s way.

It bugs me how the same young folk are carrying deadly weapons like knives and guns and actually kill. It is alarming how the children’s whereabouts and the company they keep are not monitored.

Bar owners have a secondary responsibility to regulate who consumes alcohol, in case parents fail in that primary responsibility of protecting the young. These people are also not doing the minors, society, the city and the world any favor because they are selfish and greedy. They actually need the immature to be there so their older customers can prey on you guys, because you do not yet know how to say “no,” because you are easily fooled at this point, because you have not yet experienced evil in this world and thus cannot recognize it.

The irresponsible bar owners are also a little unthinking — instead of going for a higher mark up by catering to a more mature and spending crowd of older customers who can afford to party, they have narrowed their market because of the rowdiness of their operations and the young de-”allowance” market that they are attracting.

Look at how often bars open and close in places like Nevada Square. (Sorry, I will never risk my life to party in a place like Cribs — the beer tastes the same everywhere — because one goes to a bar not for the booze but for the kind of people one wants to party with).

But Ivy, recognizing this, let me appeal to a nice young, thinking person like you. Drinking, smoking, sex, drugs and the company of your peers seems to be all that is exciting at this point, but really, all we want all our lives is love and acceptance. The kind of “love” and “acceptance” found in bars and in gangs is not real, good or necessary.

Study while you can, enjoy family while you can (for family loves and protects unconditionally and you don’t want to learn this the hard way), choose good friends, enjoy the sunlight and sleep early. Partying comes after a long day of work, with money you earned yourself.

Once you’ve grown up, you will not ever be young again. Try to hold on to your youth as long as you can.

If the Nevadas cannot impose peace and order in their little property, how can Atty. Nevada hope to do better as mayor of a city? The contracts, if I am not mistaken, are on a yearly basis (our used to be for 5 years) so what expiration are they really talking about?

Somehow, bar owners and landlords in Baguio City think their place is hip when there is a lot of trouble there. Sad …