2 'SMUT' TABLOIDS BANNED IN ILOILO

ILOILO CITY - Two tabloids have been on the watch list here after they were
classified as "smut" and consequently confiscated from newsstands in
January and early this month.

Rosalinda Poral, chair of the Task Force Adam's Apple, said that Bomba and
Banat, both Tagalog tabloids, are being monitored after some of their
January and February issues carried photographs of bare-breasted women,
many of them showbiz startups. Of the tabloids, it was Bomba that has more
of such photos splashed on its pages.

The task force, under the office of city mayor Jerry Trenas, is in charge
of the campaign against drug addiction, bold movies, prostitution,
pornography and lewd shows.

While it has not spelled out what constitutes pornography, Poral said that
tabloids, with photos of naked women, should not be allowed to circulate in
Iloilo City.

A meeting between the task force and major newspaper dealers and
distributors was held on Jan. 9, a few days after five copies of Bomba were
confiscated from newsstands. During the meeting, four representatives of
newspaper dealers pledged to discontinue the sale of Bomba.

Eduardo Ty, owner of the Eddie-Mar News and Magazine Stand, even executed a
waiver saying he had stopped the distribution of Bomba and Banat since Jan.
10. He promised never to circulate any "smut" magazine in the future.

But Jimmy Feliciano, a distributor of newspapers, comics and magazines,
asked the task force not to confiscate copies of Bomba. He said that after
he complained to Bomba's publisher, Inglewood Corp., the newspaper has
toned down its contents. (Banat is published by Banat Publishing Inc.)

Feliciano, in a letter to Poral on Jan. 11, said there is a remake of the
tabloid "just like any legitimate and decent tabloid in the country without
the pornographic and suggestive portions." He also attached a sample of the
new format.

Lawyer Lorna Laurea of the city legal office said Feliciano's request may
be granted if he could show that the new Bomba no longer contains
pornographic or obscene pictures and articles banned under Ordinance No.
85, which mandates the city's anti-smut campaign.

The ordinance authorizes the summary confiscation of "pornographic
publications" and imposes a penalty of five months imprisonment and a
1,000-peso fine, city legal officer Cirilo Ganzon Jr. said.

After the confiscation, a criminal case may be filed against a distributor.

In November last year, Task Force Adam's Apple claimed that it had stopped
the circulation of "Ultimate X-pose Male Body Mag" in Iloilo city after all
newspaper distributors agreed to do so.

Poral said that despite the pledge of support from newspaper distributors,
the task force will not let its guard down. A visit on newsstands on Jan.
18 showed that Feliciano had some 900 copies of Bomba but he told members
of the task force that he would ship them back to Manila.

Two newsstands near the West Visayas State University have copies of Bomba
but these were sold out before the task force's visit.

Newsstand owners said they continue to receive copies of Bomba while
another newspaper dealer, who also owns a fruit stand, tried to outwit the
task force members by using the day's issue of Bomba to wrap the grapes in
his newsstands.