LAST Jan. 27, Manila tour guide Carlos Celdran was convicted for “offending religious feelings” under Article 133, Section 4 of the Revised Penal Code. Judge Juan Bermejo of the Manila City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 4 sentenced him to a prison term of two months to 13 months and 11 days.
The case stemmed from the incident on September 30, 2010 when Celdran disrupted an ecumenical service at the Manila Cathedral by going in front of the service and brandishing the sign with “Damaso” inscripted, referring to the negative friar character in Jose Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere. He said he did the act to protest Church meddling in political affairs especially its opposition to the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.
The conviction sparked outrage among social networking sites critical of the Church’s opposition to the RH law. Internet supporters of Celdran said the conviction was the Church’s way of getting at those who supported the RH law.
Celdran’s supporters said he should not have been convicted since he was merely exercising his right to free speech.
They put up a Facebook page, “Free Carlos Celdran,” as if Celdran had been imprisoned when in fact he was allowed to post bail and appeal the ruling.
According to the page’s description, this was made by friends of Celdran who were “clamoring for his release, condemning the antiquated views of the CBCP, and supporting the Reproductive Health Bill to uplift Filipinos’ lives.”
But of course, the page was just an excuse to rally cyber bullies against the Church.
President Aquino jumped into the fray by calling on the Church to forgive Celdran. Apparently he was impervious to—or feigning ignorance—the fact that it was his own Department of Justice that continued to prosecute the case after Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales had forgiven Celdran and didn’t pursue the complaint anymore.
President Aquino apparently is no respecter of interbranch comity or at the least, ignorant of the protocol that the Executive should not meddle with the Judiciary.
(If he could have a chief justice impeached by rallying his Congress cronies and prostituting supposedly independent bodies such as the central bank, Ombudsman and audit commission, why should we respect such a protocol?)
How could he respect such a protocol when he had certified the RH bill, something that he had not promised in the election campaign of 2010? Strangely enough, the bill that he promised to have passed in the campaign, the Freedom of Information bill, has been stagnating in Congress.
In any case, why should Aquino push for the FOI bill when he and the other devotees of Carlos Celdran have already canonized him as the apostle of free speech and anointed him to spread the gospel of freedom to inveigh and generally practice hate language against the Church?
His supporters said that Celdran had been judged guilty of violating an outdated law meant to protect the Church establishment, but they seemed impervious to the fact that the service that Celdran disrupted was an “ecumenical” service that also included Protestant and other Christian denominations, whose sensitivities could have also been offended by his obnoxious and irreverent act.
Celdran’s claque also seem to be impervious to the fact that he calls himself a free thinker and atheist and that he has generally gone around places and posted comments on the Internet, saying that the Catholic Church has contributed nothing to the Philippines.
His comments are odd since Celdran generally makes a living out of being a culture guide touring locals and foreigners gullible about his antics (he also calls himself a “performance artist”) and he takes them around Intramuros and shows them the beautiful churches and convents and their museums, all hallmarks of the cultural patrimony . In short, he cashes in on his hate objects.
Celdran and his cult said he has the right to free speech, but in March 2011, he was caught by CCTV cameras tearing down the anti-RH streamers of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines in Intramuros.
In fact, they want them to shut up. They want them silenced.
Ah, but the Church of Celdran said that he’s merely following the footsteps of Jose Rizal. In fact, when he disrupted the service at the cathedral, he was wearing the derby hat and coat of Rizal.
But funnily enough, for former Comelec chair Christian Monsod, who’s pro-RH and Celdran’s co-religionist, the convict didn’t look like Rizal but “Charlie Chaplin.”
What do you call such likes?
“Pathetic.”
