A LADY lawyer and member of the city council here has proposed stiffer measures against the flesh trade soon after a report in a national television network tagged Dagupan as “prostitution capital of Pangasinan”.

Incensed by the report which she considers as damaging and hurtful to the people of the city, Councilor Farah Decano said she filed a draft ordinance seeking to supplement whatever may be lacking in existing laws, such as the Revised Penal Code and the Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act.

Section 4 of the draft ordinance provides that the act of engaging or agreeing to engage in a single act flesh trade consisting of acts, other than sexual, or oral or anal intercourse shall be punished with an imprisonment of eight months and succeeding conviction by the same offender shall merit one year imprisonment as punishment.

Both the solicitor of the sexual act and the person providing the sexual favor shall be punished.

The draft ordinance will also punish the act of looking for customers on behalf of the person engaged in the flesh trade as well as the act of attempting or offering to engage in flesh trade, as well a the employer or establishment harboring persons in order to engage in flesh trade.

Another feature of the proposed city law is that all government agencies whether city or national are encouraged to enforce the ordinance by entrapment.

Decano however clarified that in entrapment of individual offenders, a social worker must be around to witness the procedure.

Decano said that entrapment shall not go as far as engaging the offender of a sexual, oral or anal intercourse. The authorities, she said, must endeavor to gather solid evidence against the offender without demeaning his or her right to human dignity.