manny villar vs. sex education?

thanks to whistlebloggers pete lacaba and john silva for calling attention to senate bill no. 2464 also known as the Anti-Obscenity and Pornography Act of 2008 now pending in the senate, which would violate the constitution’s tenets of freedom and democracy and bring back censorship big time.

so what’s up ba talaga with senate president manny villar, he with the very moist eye on malacanang palace, sponsoring and earnestly seeking the approval of such an all-encompassing anti-obscenity and -porn law that would criminalize and penalize the production, broadcast, and exhibition of all materials deemed “obscene” by state & church watchdogs, “obscene” referring to

“anything that is indecent or offensive or contrary to good customs or religious beliefs, principles or doctrines, or tends to corrupt or deprave the human mind, or is calculated to excite impure thoughts or arouse prurient interest, or violates the proprieties of language and human behavior, regardless of the motive of the producer, printer, publisher, writer, importer, seller, distributor or exhibitor such as, but not limited to:
(1) showing, depicting or describing sexual acts;
(2) showing, depicting or describing human sexual organs or the female breasts;
(3) showing, depicting or describing completely nude humanbodies;
(4) describing erotic reactions, feelings or experiences on sexual acts; or
(5) performing live sexual acts of whatever form.”

and pornography referring to

“objects or subjects of film, television shows, photography, illustrations, music, games, paintings, drawings,
illustrations, advertisements, writings, literature or narratives, contained in any format, whether audio or visual, still or moving pictures, in all forms of film, print, electronic, outdoor or broadcast mass media, or whatever future technologies to be developed, which are calculated to excite, stimulate or arouse impure thoughts and prurient interest, regardless of the motive of the author thereof.”

covers it all, di ba, as in COVERS ! tinatakpan, ikinukubli, isinesekreto, ang tungkol sa sex. at inaasahan i suppose na kung walang magpa-publish ng mga sexy tabloid at mga tipong fhm at playboy, at kung masisibak na ang mga tipong eat bulaga at wowowee, at kung maipagbabawal na ang sexy billboards and commercial ads, sexy paintings and sculptures and fashions and dvds, aba, wala na ring magkakasala, as in, wala nang makakaisip ng “impure thoughts,” mapipigil na ang panggigigil ng madlang people, maaawat na ang population explosion, magiging history na ang sexual violence against women and children, gayon din ang prostitution, homosexuality, and sexually transmitted diseases.

WTF ! there’s no way any congress can legislate away “impure thoughts” and i’m sure our representatives and senators know it.  besides, ika nga ni john silva:

The bill’s assault on basic Filipino liberties and rights will have serious cultural and economic implications. Arts and Culture deprived of creative expression will be sterile and not saleable.

Suspected books and the printed media will be banned and the publishing industry will teeter and collapse. The manufacturing sector involved in the selling of goods whose advertising pitch depends on exalting the human form will suffer financial loses.

The broadcasting media, the film and video industry and the internet industry, dependent on unfettered information will be curbed and subject to financial ruin.

Our tourism industry will suffer considerably. If our society loses its unique tourist branding as one of the freest and most liberal in Asia to be replaced with a monastic authoritarian state, then who in their right mind would come and visit a poor version of Saudi Arabia?

so, again, i ask, wazzup, wazzup, with presidentiable villar?

my suspicion is, correct me if i’m wrong, this anti-obscenity anti-porn bill ay sagot niya, o panabla niya, sa long overdue and controversial reproductive health bill. note the phrase “regardless of the motive of the producer, printer, publisher, writer, importer, seller, distributor or exhibitor…” — i bet it’s aimed at the reproductive health bill’s sex education provisions.

Reproductive health education in an age-appropriate manner shall be taught by adequately trained teachers from Grade 5 to 4th year high school. As proposed in the bill, core subjects include responsible parenthood, natural and modern family planning, proscription and hazards of abortion, reproductive health and sexual rights, abstinence before marriage, and responsible sexuality.”

sana i’m wrong, but i wouldn’t be surprised if the senate president’s strategy is, to pass FIRST the anti-obscenity anti-porn bill, thereby trumping the reproductive health bill’s sex education provisions (we’ll just have to settle for a watered-down rh law?), which is to accommodate the holy-men-in-skirts and their chorus lines of moralists so they’ll all support him in 2010.  how devious.  how obscene.  how presidential.  way to go, manny villar.