One Night Under the Neon Lights - Part II

If she wasn’t dressed in a short skirt and skimpy t-shirt she would look exactly like my neighbour’s 16 year old daughter. She had a sweet face. Innocent almost. It was not hard to like her. I imagine punters at the Beach Club would approach her all the time.

“I’m from a village in Cebu Island. I’m a Visayan. A friend from my village had worked here before. She was always encouraging me to take a holiday and work here for 3 months. When she was away, people said she went to Malaysia to be a waitress. So I was interested. I wanted to leave my job as a waitress in a restaurant in Cebu City anyway.”

“So you came here to be a waitress?”

“At first that’s what I thought. My friend introduced me to a man who said he was an agent and specialized in finding work for Filipino girls. He told me there was a fee: 60,000 pesos. That’s RM4000. He told me I would be earning RM800 a month and I have to give him half of the wages every month until I repaid the fee. I told him that there would not be much left for me.”

“Go on.”

“He told me there was another way I could repay everything quickly. He said I might earn about RM500 a night.”

I could guess what that involved.

“He said that there is no shame in it. Nobody in the village would know because I could tell people I went to work as a waitress. So he said the terms were, for every customer I get, I will have to pay RM400 to the mama-san in Malaysia. That way, the debt would be paid after 10 customers. After that I could keep the money all for myself.”

“How about your living expenses?”

“He said that I have to pay for my own. I could stay in a place where I don’t have to pay the rent first. But I will owe the money until I pay it.”

“Were you shocked?”

“I hear these stories before but I never expected that I would be offered a job like that. Still, I calculated that I can maybe bring back 150,000 pesos (RM10,000) at the end of three months. I don’t feel it would be that bad.”

“So did you agree then?”

“I said I wanted to find out more from my friend and then make up my mind. He said the offer was only open for a week.”

“What did your friend tell you?”

“She said it was an easy job. I only had to go to a bar and pretend I was having a drink with girlfriends. She said people who approach me will know why I’m there and will make an offer. I have to tell them it’s RM500 for long-time and RM300 for short-time.”

“What is long-time and short-time?”

“Long-time means until 6 a.m. Doesn’t matter what time we start. Short-time is just 3 hours.”

“Did your friend tell her what you had to do for the customers?”

“She said just do what I would do with my boyfriend. But she said there are a few basic rules: only go to a hotel – no houses, make sure the customers bathe first and always use a condom. She said never carry condoms because that is evidence. The customers will find their own condoms. Most important of all, she said, was to ask for the money first.”

“Did you agree immediately?”

“No. I took the whole week. I thought about what I could use the money for. Maybe start a small business or support myself while I studied further. I thought my future was more important.”

“Were you scared? I mean having to do this with strangers?”

“I could not think about it. As long as I’m safe, I don’t get any disease and I don’t get hurt, I’ll be happy enough.”

“So what happened next?”

“After I said yes, I quit my job. I already had a passport so one week later I was in KL. That was two weeks ago.”

….. to be continued