Court asked: Reconsider ruling on tabloids case
THE Cebu City Anti-Decency Board (CCAIB) won’t give up on pursuing its charges against two Cebuano- language tabloids.
Its chairman Lucelle Mercado yesterday filed a motion for reconsideration on charges against Sun.Star Superbalita and Banat News whose columns they deemed “obscene.”
CCAIB requested Assistant City Prosecutor Ferdinand Collantes to inhibit himself from handling the case.
The group is also seeking the creation of a panel of prosecutors to act on the motion for reconsideration.
“The investigating prosecutor erred in dismissing the cases against the writers, editors and publishers of SuperBalita and Banat since the determination of what is obscene is essentially a judicial question best left to the province of the judiciary,” Mercado said.
Collantes, the acting Cebu City prosecutor in the case, earlier dismissed CCAIB’s complaint for “insufficiency of evidence.”
The prosecutor ruled that the column “From Junquera with Love” published by Sun.Star SuperBalita and “Wildflower” published by Banat News were “not pornographic, indecent or obscene.”
Collantes said the use of some words “may be playful, witty, mischievous and may contain sexual undertones, but they were not obscene per se.”
But Mercado said Collantes made a mistake in stating that the columns don’t appeal to be “lascivious, shameful, and morbid interest in sex.”
“It is not correct for the honorable prosecutor to apply his own understanding on the issue of whether or not the publication(s) (are) indeed obscene,” she said.
In a column in SuperBalita, Mercado said a married woman was portrayed to have sexual intercourse with the nephew of her husband.
“Is this the redeeming value that the honorable investigating prosecutor is talking about? A mere perusal of the said columns in both newspapers would clearly reveal the dominant themes are purely to excite the prurient mind,” Mercado said.
The prosecutor dismissed the complaint filed against Sun.Star SuperBalita editor in chief Michelle So, Sun.Star president and general manager Julius Neri Jr. and writer Fred Fuentes Monternel of the daily column “From Junquera with Love.”
Also named respondents were Banat News publisher Juanito Jabat, Philippine Star president Miguel Belmonte and writer Cindy Jones of the column “Wildflower.”
The CCAIB is under the Office of the Cebu City Mayor. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol
