In dismissing the obscenity complaint filed against two Cebuano tabloids, acting Cebu City Prosecutor Ferdinand Collantes cited the landmark ruling of the United States Supreme Court in聽 Miller vs. California.
He聽 cited the Miller test, which defines if a publication is pornographic or not based on three grounds: One, whether an 鈥渁verage person applying contemporary standards would find if the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.鈥�
The second is whether the work describes in a 鈥減atently offensive way鈥� sexual conduct defined by law and third, if it lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
These elements of obscenity, Collantes argued, were not present in the two columns published in Cebuano tabloids Sun.Star SuperBalita and Banat 黑料社 and thus the complaints filed by the Cebu City Anti-Indecency Board (CCAIB) don鈥檛 hold water.
Board members naturally didn鈥檛 agree.
One of them, a fellow prosecutor, dared ask聽 Collantes if he would allow his kids to read the risque聽 columns.
We could only speculate how聽 Collantes would answer聽 that.
Being聽 a responsible parent, he certainly wouldn鈥檛 allow his kids to read material聽 that stirs sexual fantasies.
Collantes ruled in favor of a more liberal appreciation of the naughty columns of 鈥淔rom Junquera with Love鈥� and 鈥淲ildflower.鈥�
He went with the argument that vulgarity, like beauty, is in the eye of the reader.
His decision, we鈥檙e sure, will not encourage the publications to rub it in by聽 increasing the heat of the聽 fiction series.
As members of the Cebu community, the writers, editors聽 and owners of SuperBalita and Banat, want respect, not just high circulation.
This round was won by the Cebuano tabloids, which have other content in their pages worth praising.
But if they cross the line with impunity, they both know that the pesky CCAIB is there waiting for another chance to pounce.