The opening in Davao City of the first legally recognized house of prostitution, also known as the brothel, predates the banishment of over commercial sex workers as it is termed today from Manila to the city. The figures did not change the following year, but dropped to 40 in and to 14, in The decrease in the number of whores was attributed to the drop of the price of abaca in the world market which, by extension, affected the productivity of the brothels.
In , Japan opened its consular office in Davao, which coincided with the issuance of an anti-prostitution order.
Generoso, took a strong stance against prostitution. Fearing this development would result in anti-Japanese sentiment from local residents, the local Japanese Society decided to eliminate prostitution, which led to the closure of Japanese restaurants serving as fronts of prostitution. The rise of this sexually-transmitted disease was attributed to the exile of over prostitutes of Gardenia, a house of pleasure in Manila opened in and frequented by American servicemen, to Davao.
The event became one of the most celebrated cases in Philippine jurisprudence. Out of a total of cases reported in the Province of Davao, occurred in the town of Davao. Once free from medical supervision, these girls began to spread around the province and with them the infection. This remittance was likened to an intravenous innoculation [sic] of the Province of Davao, with pathogenic organisms which spread all over its blood vascular system of transportation⦠Davao is especially prone to react to such a remittance because of the lack of women, and the use the men make of registered prostitutes.
Of [the] 1, laboratory specimens in Davao, 1, were uterine discharges from the prostitutes. The small increase since may be in part due to the fact that many of these women have returned to Manila and are spreading their infection without molestation. There is no law against prostitution, and there is no farm to which these girls can be sent.
