Discomfort rooms Using the resttoom EDITORIAL ti ; is one of the most mate human activities. Women in particular want utmost. | privacy, with separate cubicles per toilet, unlike in the typical men’s restroom. For all the openness of Filipinos |: ‘gender-neutral or ” : lic restrooms, either in lieu of or in to the LGBT+ community, there are people — men and women alike - who feel uncomfortable sharing + : facilities. The gender{Seutral rest- : rooms provide privacy, asgardless of | the user's gender inclination, restrooms with those outside their natural-born gender. A common female concern is that a man may just be pretending to be gay to : : in fact deserves replication nation- invade women’s privacy or, worse, molest girls. The LGBT+ community may find such fears unfair and baseless, but the fears and biases aren‘t going to vanish overnight. A janitress at the Farmers Plaza shopping mall in Quezon City cited complaint: from women in explaining why she barred a transgender woman from using the public restroom last Tuesday. An altercation ensued, and the transgender ended up be- ing apprehended and handcuffed by police, subjected to a medical examination and then booked for © unjust vexation. The charges were subsequently dropped and the Bender reportedly intends to pres: charges against the mall Operator AE heen accused of dis- Who was at fault? The city police has criminating against the LGBT+ community. The city government has : called out Farmers Plaza for failure to comply with a local ordinance re- quiring all establishments to provide j-gender” pub- addition to regular gender-exclusive Quezon City Ordinance No. 2357 wide, with full enforcement. Around : the country, operators of some shop- > ping malls, restaurants, fastfood chains and coffee shops have already : taken it upon themselves to install } such restrooms, even int the absence } of local ordinances. If other local government units pass similar ordinances, the next ‘ challenge is proper enforcement. The Quezon City ordinance was approved back in 2014, but the man- ; agement of one of the biggest and : oldest shopping centers in the city is either unaware of the ordinance or has ignored it. If clarity is needed, the : city governmentis open for questions janitress apologized, but the trans- from the public. The unfortunate incident at Farmers Plaza need not * be repeated, *Again, lifestyle checks Each time there is a major corruption scandal, someone announces that lifestyle checks would be conducted. It has been no different in the latest case in- volving the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. PCSO gaming activities were suspended after President Duterte * received reports about alleged in small town lottery operations. also were not remitting their earn- ings to the PCSO. Now the Presidential Anti-Crime and Corruption Commission has an- nounced it would conducta lifestyle check on all PCSO officials except newly appointed general manager Royina Garma. The commission = said the lifestyle check would be = expanded to cover officials of all revenue-genérating agencies. It would be interesting to see — how far the lifestyle checks could go. Bank secrecy laws provide a perfect cover for dirty money in this country, and there are limits to the investigative powers of the An- ti-Money Laundering Council. But the anti-corruption commission can = EDITORIAL ST check the declared as- Sets of the officials in the revenue-raising agencies and compare the figures with taxes paid on regular salaries and other legitimate earnings. The AMLC can come in when certain : circumstances are met. Like the Office of the Ombuds- man, which is the principal agency : tasked to handle graft cases, the massive corruption particularly © anti-corruption commission surely } lacks personnel to conductlifestyle Officials said STL outlets were not | only being used as fronts for the : illegal numbers game jueteng but” checks. Such probes, if they are to lead to administrati], > sanctions and criminal indictments, must be © thorough. Solid evidence must be - unearthed that can stand judicial * scrutiny to establish guilt beyond ~ reasonable doubt. This kind of probe needs deep | legal expertise. Officials accused of an offense that can put them in prison for over a decade and even for life aren’t going to the peniten- © tiary without a fight. Lacking in resources, graftbusters can focus on the most notorious of- : ficials, pouring resources into the + probeso that guilt can be established : and someone can be touted as an : example of how public servants are : Not supposed to serve the public. The announcement about lif, ‘estyl checks must go beyond lip Ber yions