‘Seized mags exposed privates’

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OBSCENE? Copies of Cosmopolitan and FHM were seized from a book shop in Cebu last June 30 by the Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)

NY exposure of a person’s private parts in a publication constitutes pornography, the head of the Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board (CAIB) said yesterday.

City Administrator and CAIB head Dr. Lucelle Mercado, CAIB head, said the board doesn’t need to confer with the court to confiscate what it considers pornographic materials.

She said their mandate is spelled out in the city’s anti-indecency ordinance which created CAIB.

“If there is breast exposure, how can you make arguments? The Kama Sutra suggested different sexual positions. We are left with no other choice but to take them,” she said.

CAIB confiscated 237 men’s and women’s magazines from Book Sale located inside SM City Cebu in a June 30 operation.

Authority

Pachico A. Seares, executive director of the Cebu Citizens Press Council, said the board “exceeded its authority in raiding the store and seizing the 237 men’s and women’s magazines.”

“We don’t believe that we have exceeded (our authority) because that is clear in the ordinance,” Mercado said.

Mercado said CAIB operations are always done in consultation with other board members that include prosecutor Aida Sanchez.

“One of the strengths of CAIB is that we have lawyers in the board,” she added. Mercado disagreed with Seares, saying they have long been confiscating pornographic materials.

CAIB members, she said, are willing to sit down with Seares and discuss his concerns if he decide to seek a dialog with them.

The board which she chairs also has as its members the city legal officer, city prosecutor, city council representative, city schools superintendent, city police director, and representatives from the private sector.

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