Manila: the stupidest city in Asia

Times like these, I wish I could follow Jim Paredes's example and move to Australia.


On the news today: Manila's City Council has formed a resolution to ban The Da Vince Code movie. Interviewed on ANC was Congressman Abante, whose character unfortunately is the reverse of his name.

His arguments:

• The Philippines is the only Catholic country in Asia.
• A portion of the Catholics in our nation -- and he quoted 26% -- are "weak" Catholics because they don't even bother to hear mass.
• In light of these statistics, we shouldn't show The Da Vinci Code -- we might further weaken our Catholic country.
• Moreover, Abante stated, Dan Brown's book weaves fiction and fact together. Doing this might mislead the ignorant Filipinos to question their faith (and thus weaken the foundations of this country).
• He also stated that there is a clause in the Revised Penal Code that makes it a criminal offense to show movies that offend religion, and Da Vinci Code falls under this.
• What I picked up from the debate (other anti-Da Vinci Code advocates were interviewed) is that Filipinos should not be left to decide for themselves.
• Also if I remember my Constitution correctly, freedom of speech is a basic right, and where a law conflicts with this (as the clause from the Revised Penal Code does), then the Constitution prevails, since it is the fundamental law, after all.
• Get this: they want the movie -- and eventually the book -- banned all over the Philippines.

Frankly, I didn't like the movie. My wife and I found ourselves yawning mid-way through. I've read the book and did not like Dan Brown's prose (My standard short review of the book: "Hardy Boys for grownups"). But I did like the way he created a thriller out of historical controversy.

Anyhow, Abante was asked by the host, Chiqui Roa, if he had read the book. He stammered and explained that he did not want to waste his time reading the book. BUT he did read an anti-Da Vinci Code book called The Da Vinci Deception.

We're in a sticky situation here: we have a political leader who wants to ban a movie he has never seen and does not plan to see, along with the book where it was based on, that our good Congressman never bothered to read, to protect the interests of his constituents who are mostly weak in their faith and could not be trusted to think for themselves. (His words: the book is already blasphemous; to watch the movie is demonic).

We may be the only Catholic nation in Asia but we could arguably be the stupidest. I'll leave you, Dear Reader, to draw the correlation from that. Cong. Abante should consider changing his name to Atrasado.

I guess this is proof that we really get the leaders we deserve.

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