Manila judge won’t stop showing of ‘Da Vinci Code’

A Manila judge has postponed the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the showing of the controversial movie "The Da Vinci Code" in theaters in the city.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, who had asked the court to stop the film’s showing, told reporters yesterday that Judge Romulo Lopez of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 34 had given the film’s distributors Columbia Pictures and the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) and its chairman, Ma. Consoliza Laguardia, three days or until Monday to submit their opposition to the petition.

Meanwhile, movie critics of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) expressed confidence yesterday that "The Da Vinci Code" would ultimately strengthen the Christian faith of Filipinos.

Watching the movie or reading the best-selling novel by American author Dan Brown would invite questions on the divinity of Christ, and in the end provide a deeper understanding of Christianity, said the Catholic Initiative for Enlightened Movie Appreciation (Cinema) after giving the movie an R-18 rating.

Last Wednesday, Abante, representing the Bible Believers League for Morality and Democracy (BBLMD), an umbrella organization of 4,000 Baptist churches nationwide, filed an injunction asking for a TRO to stop Columbia Pictures, the MTRCB and Laguardia from showing the movie in Manila.

Asked if their efforts were futile since they failed in banning the film’s opening, Abante said: "It seems to be... But in a way I made a stand for what I believe I should do. At least, I made a stand for what I should be doing as a pastor and as a congressman."

By next week, Abante and his group intend to amend their complaint into a "preliminary injunction" and widen its scope to cover the selling of the book and the film being shown on television.

But not all Catholics are opposed to viewing or reading "The Da Vinci Code."

"We thank this film for encouraging us to go deeper into our faith, and we would like to encourage everyone to see this as an opportunity to be seekers of Catholic faith," Fr. Mario Sobrajuanite, Cinema vice chairman, told reporters in an interview.

However, Sobrajuanite said most members of Cinema’s review board have found the movie boring and "a bit verbose as it showed a really intellectual discussion of issues."

"We were bored in the sense that we found the treatment as some kind of defect," he said.

"We did realize that the film is less antagonistic of our Catholic faith as compared to the book. We do feel that the film is not something we should be afraid of, and the people actually overreacted without discerning the film and also the book."

Sobrajuanite said there were circumstances in the movie that were not based on the novel: the internal struggle of the main character,

Robert Landon, in pursuing the alleged secrets kept by the Catholic Church.

"In the film, he is presented as someone who questions and even contests these accusations, and towards the end realizes that what’s important is what he believed in," he said.

Sobrajuanite said another example was a scene in the movie when Landon recalls falling down an underground well and speaks about being saved by Christ through prayer.

Cinema believes "The Da Vinci Code" should be shown only to mature viewers, or those aged 18 years and above, because younger people would not be able to decipher issues raised in the film.

Sobrajuanite said the group saw in the movie a "morally disturbing" depiction of the Catholic Church as a "murderous and deceitful institution."

"We encourage the people to go deeper and to seek," he said.

"This is a moment of questioning and it’s good to find the answers and not to take for granted our faith but to go deeper and find out what exactly our faith teaches, especially since Dan Brown in his book claimed the secrets came from historical facts, accepted by historians and known by scholars," the group said.

Cinema gave the film an "above average" rating, "but this is definitely not one of the best movies of Tom Hanks," he added.

The film "The Da Vinci Code" premiered last Thursday in cinemas in Metro Manila.

It was given an R-18 rating by the MTRCB, which said they found "no direct attacks on religion in the film."

The CBCP welcomed the government’s decision to allow the showing of the controversial movie and maintained its position to address the challenges to the Catholic faith, which are expected to be raised in discussions and study groups on the film.

Meanwhile, the anti-pornography group Philippine Alliance Against Pornography Inc. (PAAP) appealed yesterday to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to help them in their campaign to have the film pulled from theaters nationwide.

In a statement, Aldo Filomeno, PAAP spokesman, appealed to several Mindanaoans, including the MILF and the MNLF , to help ban the movie.

Filomeno said he also appealed to Cebuanos to help remove the film from theaters in their province and neighboring towns and cities. — Evelyn Macairan, Edu Punay, Sandy Araneta