This city's Anti-Indecency Board is pushing the city leadership to extend an existing anti-porn ordinance to include short messaging service (SMS) text messages as well as Internet cafes and billboards.
The CAIB's Rene Bullecer told the Filipino press the group will propose the necessary amendments to the city law, amendments which would ban the porn text messages and require billboards be examined for porn or "indecent" imagery before they're posted, and impose fines on violators.
One CAIB member sits on the Cebu City Council. Procopio Fernandez, the CAIB vice chairman, has agreed to propose the amendments at the next council meeting. And he has potent enough clout, chairing the council's committee covering law enforcement, penology, and public safety.
The proposed amendments would also ban Internet cafes from including cubicles, the better for authorities to monitor whether users are surfing adult sites in the cafes.
Bullecer said he took up the challenge to fight porn as a centerpiece of a planned anti-indecency week September 27-October 2. In the recent past, he has threatened to resign from the CAIB unless his goal of zero porn is met. Cebu is considered – with the Visayas region – as second only to metropolitan Manila for having a reputed rash of porn publications and films.
