EDITORIAL - "Sexually provocative"

The Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board swooped down on several video stalls in Colon and on a second-hand bookshop in a mall recently. The operatives seized pornographic videos from the Colon stalls, and "sexually provocative" magazines from the mall bookshop.

There is no quarrel about the pornographic videos seized from the Colon stalls. In fact, the board is encouraged to go after all the other video shops in the city that sell pornographic materials. And the board should not just conduct sporadic raids. It should do it everyday.

There is something questionable, however, about confiscating "sexually provocative" magazines. Just what does "sexually provocative" mean. Does the Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board interpret "sexually provocative" to mean pornographic?

If so, then the owner of the mall bookshop should sue the board in court so that the court can issue a ruling based on what it interprets "sexually provocative" to mean. "Sexually provocative" seems such a very broad term to leave to the board the exclusive right to interpret.

Most people have a very clear understanding of what pornographic means. That is why there is no problem with the board seizing pornographic videos. But "sexually provocative" can mean a lot of things to people, who can have different levels of what provokes them sexually.

Some people can be provoked sexually by the sight of a woman's legs. Does that mean the board will soon be seizing sports and fitness magazines as well? And will the board soon be swooping down on the beaches to apprehend people in bathing suits and bikinis for having "sexually provocative" attire?

This is not intended to interfere with the work of the board. And this is why we applaud its efforts to crack down on porn, even if the efforts do seem to come very few and far between. But when it comes to its efforts against "sexually provocative" material, we only have the board's idea of what such an animal is.

And that is not fair to everyone concerned. The board does not have the power and the authority to make up and invent meanings. That is why the mall bookshop -- since it has been warned by the board of losing its permit if it "errs" again (the err here meaning to go against the board's interpretation) -- should bring the matter to court, not to antagonize the board, but to get a clear picture of what it can and cannot sell.

By the way, the magazines seized by the board for being "sexually provocative" are not banned items but popular magazines openly sold anywhere where printed materials are being sold. Even supermarkets have them. Why the board chose to pounce on a particular mall bookstore is a question open to everyone's interpretation.