PB hearing on lingam massage sparks debate

CEBU, Philippines - The proposed Cebu Provincial Board ordinance banning the lingam massage service in the province drew debate during a public hearing yesterday.

Urologist Dr. Ernesto Cabahug explained that lingam has no therapeutic value against prostate cancer since it is done externally and that prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction are forms of medical conditions.

“Prostate is inside the genital and lingam is done externally and even doing prostate massage this might be a caused of death if the person has an acute prostate cancer,” he said, adding that lingam is considered a form of masturbation and self-gratification.

Board Member Agnes Magpale has proposed an ordinance prohibiting lingam and yoni massage in the province.

Under her proposed ordinance, lingam and yoni massage are banned in beauty parlors, spas, clinics, hotels, motels, resorts and other similar establishments.

It also banned lingam and yoni home services in the province.

But according to Honey Yoo of Authentic Lingam Massage, their massage is learned from Malaysia and not from the website as what usually seen.

“Nine of our therapists went to Malaysia for training and not to what is shown in the Internet and we did not claim that we can cure any illnesses but we are a stress relaxation massage,” she said.

Sofia Logarta of University of the Philippines Gender Office said that although the technical movements of the massage is taught in Malaysia, Cebuanos are not yet fully informed of its cultural context.

Magpale said her proposed ordinance is not aimed at killing the operations of decent massage parlors.   “We are not killing massage parlors but we are just banning the lingam massage since no one has the license to practice lingam here,” she said.

Yu said their therapists are all professionals and skilled enough to do their jobs, saying that they would not subscribe to the idea of banning the lingam massage service.

She told the board that lingam has four phases but she can only divulge the first phase, which is the stretching. She said she cannot divulge the third and the fourth phases since she wants to protect their trade secret.

But Department of Tourism-7 officer-in-charge Rowena Montecillo said she would like to support the proposed ordinance since it aims to protect the welfare of children and women. (FREEMAN)