Manila's Taliban vows to padlock theaters showing ‘Da Vinci Code’

From the PDI:

THE Manila government on Monday threatened to padlock movie houses that continue to show the controversial "The Da Vinci Code" movie.

As of Monday afternoon, some theaters in the city were still featuring the film, three days the Manila city council banned its showing in the Philippine capital.

A council resolution which took effect Friday said the movie, based on US author Dan Brown's explosive novel, is "undoubtedly offensive and contrary to established religious beliefs which cannot take precedence over the right of the persons involved in the film to freedom of expression."

According to Geronimo Tolentino, chief of the city’s Business Permits and Development Office, theater owners were furnished a copy of the resolution a day after it was approved. However, some of them said they would only comply if the city government were to pass an ordinance and not just a resolution.

In response, Mayor Lito Atienza ordered Secretary to the Mayor Emmanuel Sison to write a letter ordering theater owners to stop exhibiting the film.

"The letter would come in a form of an order from the mayor. It will be based on the resolution and the mayor's personal directive," Tolentino said, adding that the letter were supposed to be distributed Monday afternoon.

Council member Benjamin Asilo, who authored the resolution, had said malls and cinema owners in Manila who defy the ban risked being fined, or their owners imprisoned.

Those caught selling pirated DVDs or VCDs of the movie could also be jailed for up to six months, Asilo said.

I sure the CBCP are pretty happy to let their surrogates do the dirty work for them.