The Fort bar told: Be decent or face closure

By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—A controversial bar at the upmarket Bonifacio Global City got a stern warning from the city government of Taguig: be decent or face permanent closure.

Taguig City Mayor Freddie Tinga ordered Friday the owners of Embassy Club to "come up with a new and better business concept, from a high-end and known to be wild party place to a more wholesome hang-out."

Two of its bars and restaurants—the Embassy Super Club and Embassy Cuisine—remain temporarily padlocked on orders of the city government.

This after a businessman patron of the Embassy Cuisine, Dennis Navarro II, was hurt after being stabbed by another customer, Kilikan Jimenez, who allegedly escaped with the help of the Embassy’s employees last August 18.

Police have filed charges of obstruction of justice against Cuisine restaurant manager Constante Parayno, bouncers Gilbert Battung, Gilbert Rempis, Felimon De Leon, Gilbert Demos and Joven Bantique before the Taguig City Prosecutor’s Office, Tinga said.

The club’s management denied their employees helped the suspect to escape, even as they said they “did not and will not tolerate the evasion by any party of legal liability.”

The management appealed to the city government to reconsider its “simultaneous closure” order.

They argued that the incident “occurred in Cuisine, which is a distinct and separate establishment from the Club."

But the city's Business Permits and Licenses Office said the club would remain shut.

“The city government has decided not to reopen the Club until management could show that they are able to handle the crowd that comes in and devise a plan that would prevent incidents of violence," said BPLO head Jeffe Minglana said.

Tiñga also said that this was not the first time violent incidents occurred near and inside the club's premises that has "put the city in a bad light."

“We’re not the type that closes down an establishment for minor or first infractions. This has become a vicious cycle for Embassy, which has gained notoriety because of the series of incidents of fights that occurred there. We cannot let these happen again,” he added.
In June, the club, located at The Strip in Bonifacio Global City, was also ordered closed following the alleged mauling of a balikbayan patron, Alexandrew Vargas, by a freelance emcee, DJ Pauly Mac (Paul Montemayor in real life).

The club’s vicinity was also the scene of another mauling incident last year involving its patrons, commercial model Borgy Manotoc and Carlo Brown, grandson of former Social Welfare secretary Mita Pardo de Tavera. The same year, a commercial pilot was also mauled to death near the establishment.