No act that falls within free expression can be impinged by the law, or those in power. Even if it is wrong. Even if it does have the ability to corrupt. Even if it is pornographic.
As a taxpayer, as a citizen, and as a writer, I condemn Senate Bill 2464.
It carries with it Ray Bradbury’s overtones: to imagine a police that burns marijuana and bulldozes DVDs is one thing. But thanks to a proposed bill (OK, bull) like SB 2464, we just might see book-burning, blog-raiding, and just about everything else that threatens to “damage” our “moral fiber.”
I do browse, read, and watch more than my own fair share of porn. Yes, I happen to like it, to a certain extent. There are some porn materials that I will stare through and gawk at and fantasize about, and at the same time, there are some kinds of porn that I will condemn. I’m not saying that porn is normal, I’m not saying that it’s healthy, and there’s really no excuse or justification I can pluck out of the void to justify the slow corruption of my moral fiber. Yet for the Government to act beyond its grasp – to act as a moral police – is yet another brick in the facade of fascism.
Senator Manny Villar’s bill is that brick in the wall. It is the very pornography, the very obscenity, that he seeks to wipe out the “morally-corrupted” hindquarters of this nation.
Villar’s bill defines “obscenity” and “pornography” along the lines of sex. Yet what the Senator fails to realize is that “obscenity” and “pornography” do not just describe the disgust that there is in wanton and gratuitous sex. Freedom of speech is not absolute, and so is pornography. There are so many places that you can get descriptions of breasts and genitalia, and so many ways to get erotic reactions and feelings from all sorts of things. There’s “porn” in medical textbooks, in anthropological tracts, in newspapers, in religious texts, and so should you choose, find something pornographic about people selling Japanese sweet corn on the sidewalks of Katipunan Avenue. Or the obscenity in having pink urinals and not proper comfort rooms on major roads in the Metropolis.
Villar’s bill defines “obscene” as something that “tends to corrupt or deprave the human mind.” There is obscenity in graft, corruption, and the many salacious and malicious deals that do not benefit the people. There is something pornographic about day-to-day existence, if Villar so chooses to define “pornography” as something “calculated to excite, stimulate, or arouse impure thoughts and prurient interest.”
The bill invokes the “proprieties of language and human behavior.” May I ask the good Senator, what is so obscene or so pornographic about a word? Haven’t we all been taught that language is an arbitrary relationship of signs and symbols in a field of difference? I ask, what violates our moral sensibilities when we talk about penises, vaginas, sexual intercourse, breasts, nudity, or fetish? Aren’t we more scandalized about things like poverty, corruption, and incompetence? Aren’t we more offended by a word like “censorship?”
When faced with censorship, and a fetishistic preoccupation with louse-infested pubic hair, I am far more disgusted with censorship. I am more offended by the superimposition of a backward, relative, optional moral standard than the syllabication of sexual, orgasmic, masturbatory onomatopoeia.
Yet the bill is not a problem of definition; rather, it is a problem of intention. The question is not “What?” but “Why?” The exclamation is not “What!” but “Why!” It’s bad enough that we get screwed out of the one privilege we have in a democracy – a vote – but when we get screwed by something as essential as free speech and creative expression, it’s a different story.
SB 2464 is not the triumph of the morality of this nation: rather, it is a slap in the face of a democracy. For all our failings, we are a country that was founded on obscene and pornographic forms of resistance: the Cry of Balintawak, the rejection of the RP-US Bases Treaty, Martial Law, the Sanduguan, the revolt of Dagohoy, EDSA, and just about every fetish that made this country – as “backward” and as “sucky” as it is – a model for free expression. It’s bad enough that some of us get truncheoned and water-cannoned in the name of change, but a proposal to turn us into a state of surveillance? That’s a different case. That is bollocks. That is bullsh*t.
No to – no, wait, f*ck – 2464.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Why our politicians believe that they still have the credibility to talk about ‘moral fiber’ escapes me. Besides, SB 2464 is unconstitutional as it violates the separation between Church and State by imposing a religiously determined set of beliefs.
@cvj: I honestly don’t know why. 2464 is more pornographic than the middle parts of Harold Robbins novels.
spot on! :D
it really is a cynical bill. I just finished reading through it. it’s actually scary. unfortunately it will pass for the obvious political reason that it’s a play for the RCC’s nod for anyone who wants to run for president.
There is a curious possibility however: I don’t know what the senator’s all think of the Reproductive health bill. I wonder if the senator’s could recover some if they supported RH but pushed 2464?
How would we feel about such a twin position? Villar strikes me as pragmatist. His background certainly would suggest that. He can’t
possibly think the RCC’s right on RH. But maybe I just expect too much of him.
DJB:
Any position that impinges upon the right to information is a SCARY bill. if it will pass and they start arresting people for “corrupting moral fiber,” let’s just say I’m not afraid of three concrete walls and a set of iron bars.
If it will pass to get the vote of a moralist majority or for people who advocate censorship at the expense of the right to information and creative expression, then those against it must do anything in their power to stop it. Reproductive health issues exist completely apart from “obscenity” and “pornography,” or how Sen. Villar defines them.
I think it’s obscene to think that an overpopulated society is caused by fantasy stories at Tiktik or Literotica or whatnot, or that our moral problem is caused by FHM. There’s something obscene and pornographic about poverty and political scandals, and immorality in The Government’s refusal to address them.
And that boxer metaphor GMA used? Obscene, to say the least.
If the bill is passed, I will distribute copies of the Song of Songs! It is very abhorrent because it is against freedom of worship. Recall that freedom of worship is inextricably linked with freedom of expression
The whores will enter the Kingdom of God first before the sponsors of this bill ever will!
I have read in full the bill. It is against freedom of religion! No provision is made to exempt the holy books of religions. The Holy Bible will obviously be a casualty since Old Testament would be deemed “obscene”. I have pointed out that the Song of Songs is the work of eroticism in the Western tradition. It is sacred literature. What about the Vedas, the Shrutis like the Ramayana,which has an erotic theme? These are considered holy by the Hindus? The Kama Sutra is also sacred scripture.
This proposed bill violates freedom of religion and must be opposed!
So is the Nacionalista our de jure Conservative Party?
Blackshama, it violates common sense.
Sorry, but found this sentence – Haven’t we all been taught that language is an arbitrary relationship of signs and symbols in a field of difference? – totally baffling… as in, no I haven’t been taught that “language is an arbitrary relationship of signs and symbols in a field of difference?” What I have been taught is that in the beginning is the Word. Not structuralist pare, but words as angelic devices, our bridge to the All Mighty. Fuck em all tit fuckers.
it maybe insane but no senator or a congressman will sponsor a bill if no one asked them to.
let us admit na unstoppable and untouchable ang mga tabloids like abante,bulgar at tiktik.and the pinoy versions of playboy,etc.
let us admit that those wines and spirits can not sell with out them sexy models.sino bibili ng white castle kung wala yung mga beauty queen na sumasakay sa kabayo.
we can not deny the existence of chat rooms that pimp children; and likewise those online dating sites which lead to white slavery.
This is still pending, wala pang debate,sigurado ako itong dalawang paragraph na bill na ito ay mababawasan pa. I have witnessed senate bill hearings na kahit isang word lang ilang oras pag dedebatihan, you have seen the recent privilege speech stalemates di lang oras araw pa dahil sa isang issue.And another thing is,this must have a counterpart in the lower house.
I am sure tatagal pa ito ,buti na lang pinapansin natin ang mga senate bill na sometimes ay parang tanga.
and we the public must start to demand them to limit these closed door meetings like the bicam.
If the bicam conference of the budget has been open to the public to begin with,di wala sanang pag aawayan ang mga senador.
But kung pati ang pag type what the fuck ay mesesensor kahit sa comment thread ng blog, the I hope too that the senate bill will get fucked.
“This is still pending, wala pang debate,sigurado ako itong dalawang paragraph na bill na ito ay mababawasan pa.”
What was I drinking,ang dalawang paragraph ay nasa expalnatory notes lang.
aside from that mistake and the maecensor(spelling), i stick with the rest of my opinion.
since nabasa ko na ang buong bill.
kailangan na bang ipullout laht ng deodorant na korteng penis.
o pag akyat mo sa baguio bawal na bang bumili ng wooden penises.
ang punot dulo nito sa parental guidance din eh.
Thanks,that’s all.
OOPs tinamad ako itype ang buo kong pangalan,but last na yan .sa isang blog ko lang gamitin yung short cut ng pangalan ko na yun.
KG:
It’s not about Villar using and upholding a moral standard, but it’s about using this moral standard as a way to censor free and creative expression. The fact that this has to be debated one day is appalling and disgusting.
Fuck 2464.
Ok then Archive 2464!
or as you say Fuck 2464!
the artists will surely raise a howl once the news comes out that it will be in the agenda.
each senator has a pr guy,have a group of artsists,webmasters,publishers,etc. or any group make a manifesto and have a rep go to each senate office and ask for the one handling pr; for sure the pr guys of the senators will receive that manifesto.
I sometimes spend my time in the office of a senator.
If a representative of squatters can leave a booklet of documents to a receptionist of a former chair of the housing committee,then any of us can if we just try.
I know it is frustrating,but there are ways to channel those frustrations.
Don’t ask me to do it,it is just a suggestion.
OK, I’ll take you up on it. :)
I need the Senator’s office address, an envelope, and a decent printer.
Hi Marocharim,
Ang haba ng pangalan mo(ako din):)
Sorry if this would take up so much of your time,but I owe you a reply so here it is: :)
The senators hold office at the senate building (gsis)
Senator Manny Villar
Senate Office:
Rm. 606 6th Flr., GSIS Bldg., Financial Center, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City
Trunk Lines: (632) 552-6601 to 80 loc. 6508 – 6511
Direct Lines: (632) 552-6876 / (632) 552-6715
Fax No.: (632) 552-6734
Email: mb_villar@yahoo.com
Website:www.mannyvillar.com.ph
as for the others click on the name of the senator on their web page:
http://www.senate.gov.ph/
sorry for the inconvenience,at least mas matipid ito kesa sa one page ad sa newspaper.
who knows they might decide to archive it,right away.
Nah, it won’t. :) time to carry at least one advocacy offline.
Good luck and go for it! :)