Mrs. Cruz's surname simply means "cross", pointing to the heavy burden she places on the shoulders of the young girls she lures into prostitution. Since the character's name is later revealed to be an alias, it could also mean that the name was chosen, as Cruz is a common surname in the Philippines, representing how easily she could walk around the streets of Manila without detection. The name of the antagonist Ah Tek, meanwhile, is a play on the colloquial term "atík", ("cash"; a transposition of "kità", or income) representing the greed and selfishness of the character.