Fiscal asked: Would tabloid columns be okay for kids?

Would you let your child read sexually suggestive columns of two Cebuano tabloids?

That was the question posed by Asst. City Prosecutor Aida Sanchez to Asst. Provincial Prosecutor Ferdinand Collantes who dismissed the complaints filed by the Cebu City Anti-Decency Board (CCAIB) against two Cebuano tabloids.

“If he (Collantes) thinks the columns are not obscene, would he recommend it as reading material to his 12-year-old son?” she said.

The board will file a motion for reconsideration of the dismissal of charges against Sun.Star SuperBalita and Banat News.

Sanchez said they will ask the Regional State Prosecutor to form a “panel of prosecutors” to review the content of the tabloids’ columns, which CCAIB earlier said were “obscene, indecent and sexually suggestive.”

“I don’t think one decision of the prosecutor is enough. CCAIB is not against tabloids. We are against pornography. We are after guarding the morals in the city,” she said.

Sanchez, a CCAIB member, said Collantes may not have fully understood the implications of some words used in the controversial columns because he was “Waray.”

“He is not a Cebuano. He can’t catch the nuances of the language,” Sanchez told reporters.

Collantes declined to comment on his colleague’s statements.

His decision was backed by Regional Trial Court Judge Meinrado Paredes.

In a separate interview, Paredes echoed the ruling of the Supreme Court, which states that “no one will be subject to prosecution for the sale of exposure of obscene materials unless these materials depict or describe patently offensive ‘hard-core’ sexual conduct.”

Examples of “hard-core” gestures include “patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sex acts … , patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, and lewd exhibition of genitals.”

Paredes said while they support the campaign against indecency, the courts “are tied with the ruling of the Supreme Court.”

“Whether we like it or not, we should follow the stand of the SC,” he said.

Collantes dismissed the complaints against the two tabloids for “insufficiency of evidence.”

He said the subject columns when taken as a whole have serious literary work with redeeming social values.

CCAIB chairman Lucelle Mercado said she believed the dismissal of the complaints will only spur them to become more vigilant.

Mercado said Collantes’ ruling proved that “there is something wrong with the standards of morality.”

Prosecutor Sanchez described the language used in the columns “From Junquera with love” in SuperBalita and “Wildflower” in Banat were “grave and blatant.”

She, however, admitted there’s no absolute definition of obscenity.

“It’s a case-to-case basis. The determination of what is obscene should be thrown to the public,” she said.

Sanchez said CCAIB will be more vigilant and will continue to file cases against those who publish obscene columns.

For her part, Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said the Provincial Board will still push for the approval of the proposed anti-obscenity ordinance.

She said she expects to receive a recommendation of a public hearing from the Provincial Board in next week’s session. With Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus