Crackdown on ‘lewd’ tabloids

Four tabloid vendors and one distributor in downtown Cebu City   were arrested  in a renewed crackdown on pornography on Friday.

The operation led by the Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board (CCAIB) also sezied copies of Manila-based tabloids  being sold on the sidewalks.

The  five suspects are spending the weekend  in the Carbon police station.

Charges will be filed against them on Monday

The titles include Toro, Bagong Toro, Bomba, Remate, Bomba and Hataw.

The  content of the seized tabloids is    “grossly pornographic”, said Lucelle Mercado, chairman of CCAIB in an interview.

She said they confiscated reading materials with photos of naked women and articles that mentioned sexual organs.

Mercado  said she received a letter complaint about the proliferation of lewd materials in Cebu City, and that after verification, the board coordinated  with the Carbon police station and Investigation and Detective Management Branch of the Cebu City Police Office to conduct a raid.

Arrested were  tabloid vendors Rosita Lim, Andres Cervantes, and Eldiconda Ministerio; DVD vendor Belal Marcino; and Jacinto Ybanez, a distributor of reading materials.

Police raided their stalls  along the streets of Manalili, Legaspi, Sikatuna Pelaez, and Mabini.

The CCAIB has been active in its campaign against pornography and filed charges last year against the editors and owners of two Cebuano tabloids but never went to the extent of arrests or confiscations until last Friday.

The charge against Banat was dismissed but prosecutors filed a case in court against SunStar Superbalita for one article in it’s series “From Junquera with Love”.

Only Manila-based tabloids were seized last Friday.

Mercado said  the arrested persons will be charged with violation of Cebu City Ordinance 1408 on anti-indecency and Article 201 or the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines which prohibits “obscene publications and exhibitions, and indecent shows.”

Mercado said the CCAIB  will convene to decide whether to include in the charges the editors and owners of the seized publications.

She said these tabloids were transported to Cebu from Manila and that some of them don’t identify their editors in the staff box.

CCAIB is a special body under the office of the Cebu City mayor.