Cebu Citizens-Press Council

STATEMENT OF CEBU CITIZENS-PRESS COUNCIL ON CAIB RAIDS
July 8, 2014   
The Cebu Citizens-Press Council (CCPC) is alarmed by news reports that the Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board (Caib) confiscated magazines    from a bookstore inside a mall.

Caib has exceeded its authority in raiding the store and seizing 237 men’s and women’s magazines.

The Supreme Court has always ruled that obscenity is an issue that is “proper for judicial determination and should be treated on a case-to-case basis and on the judges’ sound discretion.” It is not for Caib to determine obscenity.

What Caib did amounted to unreasonable seizure that the Constitution condemns. In Pita vs. Court of Appeals (Oct. 5, 1989), the high tribunal ruled that only the court can order the seizure after proper legal steps are taken.

What Caib should’ve done was to secure copies of the “offensive” publications and ask the court to order the confiscation if it finds them to be obscene.

In 2011, CCPC opposed to, and succeeded in the killing of, a proposed Cebu Provincial Board “tabloid” ordinance that empowered the governor to confiscate newspapers and magazines that an Anti-Obscenity Board would find to be obscene.

Pachico A. Seares
CCPC Executive Director